Tempest in a glen

Up in the wilds of Cape Breton, Canada, there's a company named the Glenora Distillery. It is located in a glen, its address is Glenville, and it is near Glenora Falls.

However, the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) is trying to force Glenora to stop calling its single malt whisky, Canada's sole such beverage, Glen Breton. This comes on the heels of the Canadian Trade-Marks Opposition Board's ruling that Glenora can continue using the word Glen despite oposition from the Scotland-based SWA.

The SWA plans to appeal the ruling to the federal court in Canada. Its stance is that using the word "glen" makes consumers think the whisky is made in Scotland.

The Trade-Marks Board said, in part, "The essence of the opponent’s argument is that Canadian users and purchasers of whisky have been educated to associate the word Glen solely with scotch whisky."

However, if the association "truly believed that the word Glen merits special protection for producers of scotch whisky, it should have long ago taken steps to protect that word as a geographical indication of Scottish origin, much as it did for the words ‘scotch whisky'."

No word yet on whether the SWA might go after Glen Campbell, Glenn Gordon Caron, Scott Glen, Glen Close, the Glenn Miller Orchestra or the estate of the late actor Glenn Ford.

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