Hirsch Rudel triumphant in Jägermeister lawsuit

New herbal liqueur brand Hirsch Rudel is readying to launch after a winning a trademark battle launched by Jägermeister.

New liqueur brand Hirsch Rudel will launch next month after winning a lawsuit launched by Jägermeister

Hirsch Rudel initially attempted to launch in February 2013, however founders was denied patent registration after Jägermeister – which first launched over 100 years ago – objected to its name and use of a stag in its logo.

‘Hirsch’ means ‘stag’ in German, an image of which also features on the Jägermeister logo. ‘Hirsch Rudel’ means a ‘pack of stags’, an image of which features on Hirsch Rudel’s own packaging.

However, a legal battle culminated in Germany’s Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market ruling in favour of Hirsch Rudel, claiming that its name and packaging would not lead to confusion between to two brands.

Jägermeister’s iconic logo

Hirsch Rudel will now launch in limited quantities next month. Its founder Dirk Verpoorten claims that the liqueur is based on a recipe created by his grandmother, who as a child would collect herbs from a forest frequented by a pack of stags.

The liqueur is a hand-bottled mix of 31 herbs including lovage root, gentian, valerian root, centaury, root angelica, coriander and herba veronicae.

Verpoorten said that he rediscovered this recipe in a lost trunk belonging to his grandmother, which also contained a book of poetry entitled Hirsch Rudel, further inspiring the name of the brand.

Hirsch Rudel, bottled at 35% abv, will launch in Germany in May at an RRP of €21.