Two Midwestern Breweries Are Fighting Over 'Ope'

Oh jeez, this is gonna get spendy.

'Ope' is a midwestern trope. It's right there in the word 'trope'. Fancy. Minnesota gets the most ~~blame~~ love for the word, but the entire Midwest has a connection to it (even Detroit-born Eminem says it in "Lose Yourself"). But can it be trademarked? Apparently...

Two Wisconsin Breweries Are Fighting Over 'Ope'

Come on now, fellas. No need to get excited.

This legal battle (yes, it's in court) concerns two Wisconsin breweries:

OPE! Brewing in West Allis
Minocqua Brewing Co. in Minocqua

The fight is over the word 'ope'. OPE! Brewing filed a lawsuit against Minocqua Brewing for releasing a beer called "OPE: A Lager with Big Dad Energy".

OPE! wanted half of the profits from the BDE lager, while Minocqua countered with 5%. A compromise couldn't be reached, so they're going to court on October 1st.

Legally speaking: OPE! Brewing owns the trademark for "Ope" in Wisconsin (for bevvies, beer, liquor, wine, and food service).

Minocqua has since rebranded the lager, but failed to snap back to reality in time to avoid court.

Ope, there goes ~~gravity~~ neighborly!

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H/T: Kare 11

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To help you discover some of the best local brews, Stacker put together a list of Minnesota's top-rated breweries based on Tripadvisor data. Tripadvisor's rankings are a mix of several factors, including overall rating, user reviews, and page traffic. This means that even a brewery with a perfect 5 out of 5 rating might be outranked by one with a 4 out of 5 if it has more reviews or higher visibility.

Gallery Credit: Minnesota Now