St. Patrick’s Day is upon us, and as those who are in the know know, a holiday is just not a holiday if it doesn’t involve some sort of long-standing trademark dispute. The dispute du jour comes courtesy of the Trademark & Copyright Law blog, which reports the actually rather interesting fact that while Guinness (the unofficial beverage of St. Patrick’s Day) and the government of Ireland both use the design of a harp as a trademark, the two parties have conscientiously avoided consumer confusion with their respective harp designs. The Guinness harp, as many alcoholics can attest, faces right, while Ireland’s harp faces left, thus eliminating any possibility of confusion among the drunken rabble. Read the full post here, and imbibe a Guinness or three at your local watering hole. Reposted from the Trademark & Copyright Law blog.

U.S. Trademark Application Serial No. 86112318.