German beer can call itself F**king Hell

Published on : 26 March 2010 - 4:41pm | By RNW News Desk

A German brewery has won its battle to market a beer called F**king Hell. The European Union's OHIM trade marks agency initially rejected the name because of its sexual connotation.

That decision has now been overruled in the OHIM's appeals procedure. The brewery defended its choice of name pointing out that 'hell' in German means 'pale' and refers to light-coloured ale. It also argued that the beer is produced in F**king, a village in Austria.

It is a popular destination with British tourists, who enjoy being photographed in front of the traffic sign on which the village's name is printed. A few years ago, residents voted to keep the name, despite the problems caused by the tourists.

A few years ago a referendum was held to decide whether or not to change the village's name because of all of the attention, but in the end it was decided that the name should stay unchanged.

From: http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/german-beer-can-call-itself-fking-hell