Food, Craft Beer, Beverages and Nutrition

Conkle, Kremer & Engel represents clients in the food, craft beer, beverage and nutritional products industries.  CK&E’s support for the industries includes intellectual property protection such as registering and protecting trademarks and copyrights, non-disclosure agreements and trade secret protection of critical business information such as recipes and processes.  CK&E helps clients with distributor and vendor agreements and relations, handling regulatory matters, business ownership and partnership disputes, labor and employment issues including wage and hour disputes, wrongful termination, discrimination and harassment issues.  CK&E attorneys also resolve all types of business disputes by litigation, arbitration and mediation.

CK&E attorneys have represented numerous clients in these industries, including beer breweries and distributors, food manufacturers and distributors, airline catering and retail food preparation businesses, restaurateurs, manufacturers of dietary and nutritional supplements, and suppliers of organic and natural food products.  CK&E’s representations and accomplishments include:

• A permanent injunction protecting a major salsa manufacturer from distributors and retailers importing and selling Mexican-labeled versions of the branded products in the U.S.
• Successfully defending beer wholesalers before the Tax and Trade Bureau against government allegations of improper distribution practice
• Settling trademark infringement claims made by brand-name weight loss supplement against generic competitor
• Successfully defending misappropriation of recipe and formula trade secrets claims between former partners in sausage manufacturing business