Ravinia Brewing Needs Your Support

Three months ago, our neighbor Ravinia Festival, filed suit against Ravinia Brewing Co. for Trademark Infringement.

Ravinia Brewing's goal is to coexist with all of the Ravinia neighborhood residents, Ravinia Business District businesses, and the multitude of businesses that include the Ravinia name; including Ravinia Festival, Ravinia Antiques, Ravinia Speakeasy, Ravinia Closets, Ravinia Plumbing, Ravinia Nursery School, Ravinia Green Country Club, Ravinia Neighborhood Association, Ravinia Elementary School, among others. We have absolutely no desire and frankly limited funds for a protracted lawsuit like this.

Now more than ever, we need the support of our Ravinia, Highland Park, North Shore, Logan Square, Chicago and independent brewery communities. If you are able, please donate to our Legal Fund to support our ability to continue to be a part of this community. Any donation matters and is appreciated.

The full complaint from Ravinia Festival and Ravinia Brewing's responses can be found online, but we want to call out a couple of the critical points in the complaint here as they are simply untrue:

- "Among other things, and without disclosing their plans to Ravinia, RBC’s owners expanded their restaurant and bar business, still using the name “Ravinia,” far from Highland Park. The owners of RBC formed a new company (RBC Chicago) and proceeded to open a much larger restaurant and bar approximately twenty (20) miles away in Logan Square in Chicago."

It is public record that Ravinia Brewing created a new LLC, called Ravinia Brewing Company Chicago LLC in March of 2017, and received a Liquor License and Food Service Licensee for their Chicago Brewpub in June of 2017, a TTB License to brew beer and a State Liquor License in Chicago, all almost an entire year before the first complaint and subsequent agreement with Ravinia Festival, NOT after.

-Ravinia Festival seeks Ravinia Brewing to stop "manufacturing, distributing, shipping, advertising, marketing, promoting, selling, or otherwise offering for sale any product under any mark consisting in whole or in part of RAVINIA or that otherwise bears a name that is confusingly similar to the RAVINIA Mark" and "that Defendants be required to account for and pay over to Ravinia all gains derived by Defendants from their unlawful conduct, as well as to pay damages to Ravinia, including, but not limited to: compensatory damages for the loss of goodwill and financial injury Ravinia has suffered by reason of Defendants’ unlawful activity".

It is public record that Ravinia Brewing Company was granted and maintains a Trademark on "Ravinia Brewing" first filed in 2015.

As part of the process of litigation, we have filed our response in court and our responses speak for themselves. To reiterate, Ravinia Brewing has zero desire, and frankly limited funds for a protracted lawsuit, but the actions of the Festival to date is leaving us no choice.

While we are confident that the facts and rule of law are on our side, the facts and law don't often matter if you don't have the financial means to fight. It is no secret that the hospitality industry has been hit hard by the pandemic and unprecedented inflation, leading to more than 35 closures of breweries in Illinois over the last 12 months. As you can imagine - this is simply not a fight we can afford to take on without financial support. If you are able, please donate to our Legal Fund.

As the owners of Ravinia Brewing Co., our families have put our hearts and souls into building our business. We barely survived the pandemic, and are now at risk of unjustly losing the business we have worked so hard to create. Our homes are literally on the line as collateral against the business. If you enjoy what we have created, please consider supporting-any donation is appreciated.

Any extra proceeds if this ends quickly before all the legal funds are exhausted, will be donated to local charities and non-profits. We have have contributed to each of these exceptional organizations (over the nearly 10 years it has been since we first incorporated) through our Give Back Program because Community Matters. These organizations include but are not limited to the wonderful organizations listed below. Please check them all out!

The Balance Project - https://thebalance-project.org/

The CYSO - https://cyso.org/

Camp I am Me - https://www.facebook.com/CampIAmMe/

The Highland Park Parks Foundation - https://www.pfhpil.org/

The Highland Park Community Foundation - https://www.hpcfil.org/

Highland Park Girl Scout Troops - https://www.girlscouts.org/

Ravinia Nursery School - https://ravinianurseryschool.com/

The CBO - https://cbo4success.org

The Firehouse Community Arts Center of Chicago - https://thefcac.org/

Nourishing Hope - https://www.nourishinghopechi.org/

Rolfe Pancreatic Cancer Foundation - https://rolfefoundation.org

Ravinia Elementary PTO

Edgewood Middle School PTO

And many many more!!!

Thank You!