Sometimes it is the most trivial of things that can be the source of the most bitterly fought battles, as two Yorkshire breweries can attest to.
Mr Justice Arnold’s barbed comments in ruling in the matter of Samuel Smith Old Brewery (Tadcaster) v Philip Lee (trading as ‘Cropton Brewery’) reflect the impatience the judiciary harbours when dealing with cases that would have settled were it not for the entrenched positions of both sides.
Rather like a parent telling off battling siblings, Arnold J effectively says that whether a rose symbol can be used by one brewer or another is a pointless squabble and the court should not be bothered with it. A war of the roses it may be, but in this case it looks like the brewers would have been better going to mediation.