DB Breweries of New Zealand has cancelled the registration of its trademark for Saison following a campaign by the consumer group SOBA. DB, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries, took out a trademark for Saison that would have effectively banned the import of true Belgian Saison beers. Saison -- the French for "season" -- was originally a beer style produced by farmers to refresh their families and workers during the harvest period. It's now produced by a number of craft breweries in the French-speaking region of Belgium where the best-known Saison brewer is Dupont of Tourpes, based on a farm.
But DB will continue with its trademark for Radler, a lager and lemonade refresher first produced by Austrian and German brewers in the 1920s and 30s to slake the thirst of cyclists. In 2008, DB forced a small craft brewery, Green Man of Dunedin, to relabel its entire production of its version of Radler, which it had to rename Cyclist.