A German brewer has received permission to setup a brewery in the small town of 100 people and name the brew “Fucking Hell.”

Fucking Mayor Franz Meindl is not at all happy about the development. He says there is no brewery in the town and no one knows of the beer.

OHIM, the trademarks and design registrations office of the European Union, took a hard look at the application before deciding to approve.

Initially, the examiner rejected the name because it is more commonly used to express “sexuality [as an expression of] contempt and violent anger.

It was also weighed “that in Christian terms, ‘hell’ is the highest place of torment. It is a place of damnation…In common parlance ‘hell’ is a synonym for something negative and causing torment.”

It was noted that names “may not be registered if they are disparaging, discriminatory, blasphemous or derogatory, incite criminal offenses or insurrection.”

“Furthermore, the right of freedom of expression had to have limits in the case of upsetting, accusatory or derogatory signs.”

Sounds like the OHIM is preparing to reject the application, but not so.

“The word combination claimed contains no indication that…could refer to a certain person or group of persons. Nor does it incite a particular act. It cannot even be understood as an instruction that the reader should go to hell.”

So now the brewer can go ahead and make beer in Fucking.

Meindl responded, “We just want to be left alone. There are all these stories about our town’s name all the time – especially in summer. Everybody writes what they want.”

Meindl denied that the tourists who flock to the town to have their picture taken in front of the town signs are an economic boon to the local businesses. Instead, Meindl complained that 15 signs with the town’s name on it were stolen in the last year.

Yet Meindl and his fellow townspeople refuse to change the name. When a referendum was proposed a few years ago to change the town’s name, it was voted down.

That makes it hard to have sympathy for Meindl and Fucking. I think they like the notoriety.