Yoko Ono Drops Cease and Desist on Best-Selling ‘John Lemon’ Beer Over Beatles-Inspired Branding

(Photo: Brasserie de l’Imprimerie)

A French craft brewery has been forced to discontinue its best-selling “John Lemon” beer following a cease and desist order from Japanese artist Yoko Ono, the widow of the late Beatles founder John Lennon.

Last week, news broke that Aurélien Picard, owner of the Brasserie de l’Imprimerie brewery in Brittany, France, received a legal notice from Ono’s lawyers at the end of March. The brewery had sold a lemon- and ginger-flavored craft beer under the John Lemon name for over five years. Its label featured a caricature of Lennon with lemon slices covering his eyes, subtitled with the slogan “Get Bock,” a play on the malty German lager and the Beatles’ 1969 song, Get Back.

“At first, I thought it was a fake, some kind of scam,” Picard told The Guardian. “It was only when I went online to check the lawyers really did exist [that I] found that there had been other cases, I wasn’t the only one to have used that pun, and that people had been penalised.”

According to Picard, Ono’s lawyers warned that if he didn’t stop selling the beer, he could be ordered to pay €100,000 (around USD $117,800) immediately, plus an additional €1,500 each day until the beer was delisted. For a brewery like Brasserie de l’Imprimerie — which employs only two people and produces between 50,000 and 80,000 bottles annually — the fees would be a game-changer.

An agreement was reportedly ironed out, and Picard was allowed to sell its remaining stock of 5,000 John Lemon bottles before July 1. Picard told news outlets that the beers became an impromptu collector’s item as fans poured in to purchase the last of his supplies.

“It was crazy. I have less than 1,000 left,” Picard told AFP. “It was kind of funny, amid our misfortune.”

The beer is still visible on the brewery’s website, though its label and name have been replaced by the generic “Lemon Ginger Blonde Beer.” It’s listed alongside several other brews that pay playful homage to celebrity names, including “Jean Gol Potier,” a tribute to fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, and “Mireille Mafieux,” a nod to singer Mireille Mathieu. Picard reportedly floated the name “Juane Lemon” – a play on the French word for yellow – to Ono’s legal team, but they remained unswayed.

The case bears an uncanny similarity to an incident from 2017, when Ono’s lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to a Polish lemonade brand called John Lemon. The brand sold beverages in Pear Lemonade and Cola Lemonada varieties, and had reportedly commissioned a mural depicting John Lennon holding lemons above the brand’s logo.

A quick Google search shows that at least three other breweries are currently selling products under the John Lemon label, while other beverage makers are selling derivatives like “John Lemonade.” All brands make at least a passing mention of psychedelia, peace signs or round glasses somewhere in their branding.