It was meant to be simple - Boss Brewing, based in Swansea, had only applied to trademark its name.
But rather than spending £300 to make sure no one could copy their branding, they've ended up shelling out nearly £10,000 defending itself in a four-month legal battle against international fashion titan Hugo Boss.
As a result entire pallets of their best-selling beer have been re-labelled and all their branded clothing merchandise binned.
"This has been a horrible experience, and so stressful," brewery co-owner Sarah John said.
"We have worked so hard to create all of this and what should have been a simple process ended up making us question whether everything was going to be OK going forward in the future and whether we were going to lose everything."
After months of negotiations, it was resolved that the names of the brewery's award-winning beers, Boss Black, and Boss Boss, which is one of its highest selling products in supermarkets, would have to change.
Boss Black will now become known as Boss Brewing Black, whilst Boss Boss will become Boss Bossy.
Oh, and the brewery can't sell branded clothing anymore either.
Sarah revealed how the brewery currently had pallets worth of Boss Black, which they would have to go through and change the labels of. They will also have to get rid of hats and t-shirts.
"At the moment we are investing in a new bottling line and that money wasted in legal fees could have been invested in new kit," Sarah said.
"I understand brand identity, you have to look after your brand. But I think it's a bit unnecessary that this massive clothing company has gone after a small brewery."
A spokeswoman for Hugo Boss said they took action because of a potential "conflict and potential misunderstanding" between the high-end, international fashion brand and the beermakers from Swansea.
"Following the brewery’s application to register a trademark, we approached them regarding the use of BOSS in relation to two beer names in the portfolio," she said.
"This was to avoid conflict and potential misunderstanding regarding the brands BOSS and BOSS Black, which had been used by the brewery but are (longstanding) trademarks of our company.
"The discussions clarified the situation in respect of these two brands as well as in relation to textile merchandising for the future.
"The brewery is able to proceed with the majority of their products without impact on their current branding."
