MillerCoors files counterclaim in battle of the breweries
Brewery MillerCoors has filed a counterclaim against competitor Stone Brewing’s allegations of trademark infringement, arguing that it was the first company to use the word ‘Stone’ in the beer market.
MillerCoors filed the counterclaim at the US District Court for the Southern District of California on Tuesday, April 10.
Stone Brewing filed a trademark complaint against MillerCoors on February 16. The lawsuit accused MillerCoors of featuring the ‘Stone’ mark and “stone-centric branding” on its beverages.
Stone Brewing owns US trademark number 2,168,093 for the ‘Stone’ mark, registered in 1998.
MillerCoors’s brands include Keystone and Keystone Light, according to Stone Brewing. The name of the Keystone brand reportedly relates to a ski resort in Colorado, referenced by the figurative mountain design featured on its logo.
Stone Brewing said that ‘Key’ was dropped from the Keystone brand and the line of beverages was renamed ‘Stone’ when the brand’s owner company relocated to Chicago.
The suit said this “deceptive branding” was “quietly announced” by the company in April 2017 and new packaging and logos were created to emphasise ‘Stone’ as the brand’s primary mark.
Stone Brewing has a “devoted fan base unrivalled by other brewers” and “MillerCoors is wilfully infringing the ‘Stone’ mark in a calculated attempt to dilute it beyond repair”, the suit said.
Through the complaint, Stone Brewing said it intended to halt MillerCoors’s “misguided campaign to steal consumer loyalty and awesome reputation of Stone’s craft brews and iconic ‘Stone’ trademark”.
It added that the US Patent and Trademark Office refused MillerCoors’s attempt to register ‘Stones’ as a trademark for use in connection with the Keystone Light brand in 2007 due to the likelihood of confusion with the ‘Stone’ mark.
Stone Brewing asked the court to issue a preliminary and permanent injunction and order MillerCoors to hand over profits gained through unfair competition and trademark infringement, as well as triple damages.
In its response to the allegations, MillerCoors claimed that it was the first to use ‘Stone’ in the beer market: the mark ‘Keystone’ was registered in 1991, before Stone Brewing founded.
Additionally MillerCoors said ‘Key’ is still “prominently visible” on the cans and packaging of the brand, rendering Stone Brewing’s claims “misleading and ultimately meritless”. MillerCoors accused its competitor of not using true images of Keystone beer in its complaint, in order to “misrepresent” the facts.
In its counterclaim MillerCoors asked the court to preliminarily and permanently enjoin Stone Brewing from using the ‘Stone’ mark and award triple damages and profits arising from its use.
Stone Brewing issued a response to MillerCoors's counterclaim on April 11. In it Dominic Engles, CEO of Stone Brewing, said "we look forward to proving our case in court".
A spokesperson for MillerCoors said "our desire isn’t to engage in a public back and forth on this frivolous lawsuit but the fact is we have been using ‘Stone' as a moniker for our brand since before Stone Brewing was in business".
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