Deer kiss

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Hirschkuss is a herbal liqueur that is produced by the Hirschkuss-Genussmanufaktur GmbH in Gaißach in Upper Bavaria .

The brand triggered national media interest through trademark and patent disputes with the then Mast-Jägermeister AG (today Mast-Jägermeister SE) in Wolfenbüttel and the Bonn-based spirits dealer Verpoorten .

history

Hirschkuss goes back to a herbal liqueur that the company founder Petra Waldherr-Merk produced in autumn 2004. The recipe was based on her great-aunt's notes that 38 herbs, roots, flowers and other ingredients are used, including gentian, lemon balm, anise, valerian root, caraway, lovage, juniper, woodruff, arnica and ginger root.

Waldherr-Merk called her liqueur Hirschkuss and first served it in an antique shop that she ran in her home town of Lenggries . The label of the bottle was decorated with a leaping deer, a replica of the Lenggries coat of arms. Production took place in the cellar of Waldherr-Merk's parents' house in Lenggries.

Manufacturer

Hirschkuss has been produced by Hirschkuss-Genussmanufaktur GmbH in Gaißach since April 2010. In addition to Hirschkuss, the company produces four other liqueurs. In 2015, the annual production volume was around 300,000 liters. About 900 dealers, 800 restaurateurs and 12,000 individual customers were supplied. Hirschkuss-Genussmanufaktur GmbH operates national agencies in Austria, Switzerland and the USA.

Trademark dispute with Jägermeister

After the image and word marks for Hirschkuss were registered with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) in Munich in 2006 , Waldherr-Merk got into a trademark dispute with Mast-Jägermeister , at that time number 13 among the largest spirits brands in the world.

Mast-Jägermeister demanded the renunciation of the brand name Hirschkuss and the depiction of a deer in connection with herbal liqueur. This was justified, among other things, with similarities to the Hubertushirsch of the Jägermeister brand. When Waldherr-Merk resisted, Mast-Jägermeister AG appealed against the registration of the Hirschkuss trademark with the German Trademark and Patent Office. This dismissed the objection on June 4, 2007.

On September 6, 2007, the television magazine Quer des Bayerischen Rundfunks reported on the liqueur dispute. The Munich evening newspaper headlined: "Lenggrieser herb witch fights against Jägermeister". In addition to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Swiss NZZ reported . The dispute ended when Mast-Jägermeister did not object to the registration of a new Hirschkuss logo on June 6, 2009.

The headlines of the trademark litigation helped Hirschkuss to attract media attention throughout Germany. Waldherr-Merk earned the reputation of a courageous and successful entrepreneur who explained her success as follows: It is the right mix of laptop and lederhosen.

Plagiarism allegations against Verpoorten

In autumn 2015, Waldherr-Merk became aware of the herbal liqueur deer pack , the aroma of which is very similar to deer kiss. A chemical analysis supported this suspicion. Deer packs are made by the liquor dealer Dirk Verpoorten, who comes from the Bonn egg liqueur dynasty of the same name , Dirk Verpoorten rejects the allegations.

In March 2016, Waldherr-Merk submitted an application to the DPMA to delete the deer pack brand. In January 2018, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in Alicante, Spain, is looking into this. It turned out that there weren't enough reasons to contest the brand. The HirschRudel brand and the herbal liqueur of the same name therefore still exist.

literature

  • Petra Waldherr-Merk (ed.), Gerhard Waldherr : Ms. Hirschkuss and her men: A Bavarian success story. Hirschkuss - Genussmanufaktur (self-published), 2016. ISBN 978-3-9817949-0-8
  • Jörg Steinleitner : Deer kiss. A case for Anne Loop. Piper Taschenbuch, 2014. ISBN 978-3-492-30242-5 (In the detective novel, the liqueur appears several times and is used, among other things, as a truth serum )
  • Gabriela Weilacher, Peter Weilacher (authors), Ralf Gamböck (photographer): Typical regional specialties from Bavaria . Kir Royal, 2011. ISBN 978-3-942-52302-8 (portrait about Hirschkuss, page 228 ff)
  • Florian Kinast: 111 reasons to love Bavaria: A declaration of love to the most beautiful region in the world . Schwartzkopf & Schwartzkopf paperback, 2015. ISBN 978-3-862-65519-9 (portrait of Hirschkuss, page 146 ff)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Waldherr: Mrs. Hirschkuss and her men. Hirschkuss-Genussmanufaktur GmbH (self-published), Gaißach, 2016, ISBN 978-3-9817949-0-8 , page 16
  2. ↑ Company tour : How is the Hirschkuss herb liqueur produced ?, May 21, 2015. In: Unternehmerin ( Memento of the original from January 18, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (vdu.de) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vdu.de
  3. ^ Gerhard Waldherr: Mrs. Hirschkuss and her men. Hirschkuss-Genussmanufaktur GmbH (self-published), Gaißach, 2016, ISBN 978-3-9817949-0-8 , page 163
  4. ^ Gerhard Waldherr: Mrs. Hirschkuss and her men. , Hirschkuss-Genussmanufaktur GmbH (self-published), Gaißach, 2016, ISBN 978-3-9817949-0-8 , page 44
  5. ^ Gerhard Waldherr: Mrs. Hirschkuss and her men. , Hirschkuss-Genussmanufaktur GmbH (self-published), Gaißach, 2016, ISBN 978-3-9817949-0-8 , pages 39 ff
  6. ^ Gerhard Waldherr: Mrs. Hirschkuss and her men. Hirschkuss-Genussmanufaktur GmbH (self-published), Gaißach, 2016, ISBN 978-3-9817949-0-8 , page 19
  7. ↑ Petra Schneider: Kissed by the deer, March 14, 2011. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung
  8. ↑ Stephanie Geiger: Jägermeister aims in vain at the kissing deer, July 13, 2010. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  9. ^ Gerhard Waldherr: Mrs. Hirschkuss and her men. Hirschkuss-Genussmanufaktur GmbH (self-published), Gaißach, 2016, ISBN 978-3-9817949-0-8 , page 48
  10. ^ Hirschkuss - The Unplanned Company. In: The IHK magazine for Munich and Upper Bavaria, issue 03/2012.
  11. ↑ Stephanie Geiger: The deer kiss was more than a crazy idea, May 23, 2010. In: Die Welt
  12. ↑ Alexander Demling: Plagiarism dispute with herbal liqueurs: Schnaps is Schnaps, March 18, 2016. In: Spiegel Online
  13. ↑ Carla Neuhaus: The liqueur of the offense, March 29, 2016. In: Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin
  14. ↑ Michael Gassmann: Absurd argument about deer herbal liqueur, March 25, 2016. In: Die Welt
  15. ↑ Elena Adam: Controversy about the stag, April 4, 2016. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung
  16. ↑ Christian Stücken: Hirschkuss gegen Hirschrudel, March 30, 2016. In: Hirschkuss gegen Hirschrudel - Contribution to the TV magazine Kontrovers des Bayerischen Rundfunks on March 30, 2016 (in the online media library)
  17. ↑ Rainer Balcerowiak: liqueur war in Hirsch district, on April 21, 2016. In the portal: pleasure is self-defense
  18. ^ Nadine Klees: Eine Bonner Eierlikördynastie, June 3, 2017. In: Bonner Generalanzeiger
  19. ↑ Thomas Gautier: Bavaria liqueur versus egg liqueur, March 19, 2016. In: image
  20. ↑ Axel Höpner: Kampf um den Hirsch, April 4, 2016. In: Handelsblatt