Recently, Governor Wolf and the PLCB issued guidance for hospitality businesses beginning to serve customers inside (green) or outside (green and yellow). We covered that guidance in our last blog post, “Pennsylvania Governor Issues Updated Guidance for Hospitality Businesses Conducting In-Person Service.” » Read More

Last week, Governor Wolf and the PLCB issued guidance for hospitality businesses beginning to serve customers inside (green) or outside (green and yellow). We covered that guidance in our last blog post, “Critical Compliance Tips from Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s Guidance for On-Premise Sales During COVID-19 Crisis.” » Read More

As we outlined in our post last week, Governor Wolf issued guidance for retail food and alcohol businesses in green counties (permitted to have 50% of capacity inside and outside dining) and yellow counties (permitted to have 50% of capacity outside dining beginning on June 5). » Read More

Yellow Phase – Outdoor Dining

Beginning June 5, restaurants and retail foodservice businesses located in counties designated as being in the yellow phase are permitted to add dine-in service in outdoor seating areas so long as they strictly adhere to the requirements of the guidance, including maximum occupancy limits:

• Indoor areas, including bar areas of restaurants and retail foodservice businesses must be closed to customers except for through-traffic.

Over the past week, New Jersey Governor Philip Murphy has issued two Executive Orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent, Executive Order No. 107 signed on March 21, 2020 (superseding Executive Order No. 104), includes several provisions directly affecting members of New Jersey’s alcoholic beverage industry. » Read More

In September 2018, the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) issued, and quickly rescinded, a Special Ruling Authorizing Certain Activities by Holders of Limited Brewery Licenses. Amidst a media frenzy, the ABC decided that it should postpone the implementation of the Special Ruling so it could speak further with New Jersey’s limited breweries and other stakeholders in an effort to make the Special Ruling more palatable to the industry. » Read More

In Pennsylvania, consumers have enjoyed the benefits of new packaging opportunities offered by Pennsylvania Distributor Licenses under recent, dynamic changes to the Pennsylvania Liquor Code.  We have chronicled those changes previously in many different blogs including our slushy blog, which you can access here.  » Read More

In a recent opinion, Sazerac Brands, LLC v. Peristyle, LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a decision finding in favor of a Kentucky bourbon distillery that their use of “the Former Old Taylor Distillery” or “Old Taylor” was classic fair use of Sazerac’s trademarks OLD TAYLOR and COLONEL E.H. » Read More

In In re Honeyhole Sandwiches Inc., Serial No. 87138294,  the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) agreed with the Examiner in refusing the registration of HONEYHOLE SANDWICHES because it was confusingly similar to HONEY HOLE under Section 2(d) of the Trademark Act.  » Read More

In the spirit of upcoming Cinco De Mayo, it’s time to think about your favorite margarita recipe.  I happen to prefer my margarita with mezcal instead of tequila.  And while mezcal, known as tequila’s spicy and smoky cousin, may certainly taste “distinctive,” the TTAB found that a bottle configuration for mezcal was not distinctive enough for registration. » Read More