MillerCoors files counterclaim Against Stone Brewing
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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