from the worth squeezing department
You may have heard that Stone Brewing Co., once an offshoot and protector of the craft beer industry, won a trademark lawsuit against Molson Coors due to the latter’s rebranding of its “Keystone” brand name to feature de more prominently the word “STONE” on the cans. and labels We did not write about the case, although that does not mean that I did not have opinions about it. Frankly, I found the whole thing pretty silly. Craft beer buyers, or fans of Stone Brewing, weren’t going to suddenly think a Keystone beer was Stone Brewing because it had a big “STONE” on the can. Especially when the word “KEY” was still on the labels and the rest of the trade dress was noticeably different. And yet a jury awarded Stone Brewing $56 million for this “infraction”.
What’s remarkable about all of this is that Stone Brewing publicized the victory by claiming to be a craft brewer fighting a big, evil macrobrewery. Evil was a word that the company specifically used. Stone has also long been touted as a stalwart force against the big, evil companies in the beer space. And that’s something that Sycamore Brewing chose to highlight in its lawsuit against Stone Brewing for what it surely seems an absolute flagrant infringement of Sycamore’s very valid trademarks.
How cheeky? Well, Sycamore makes Juiciness IPA and has a trademark on the beer slogan: KEEP IT JUICY. That was set in 2020. And yet Stone Brewing, protectors of all things small and trademarks, did this:
The images to the right feature prominently in Stone’s Hazy IPA branding, both on the beer’s packaging and on the brewery’s website. I’m not usually on the side yelling about actual trademark infringement, never mind in the beer industry, but here we are. These are two companies that operate in the same geographic markets, in the same type of market, and the use is flagrantly infringing. It’s the same slogan. Even the style in their delivery are quite similar. Unless Stone somehow manages to unearth a never-before-seen trademark registration for the phrase that existed before Sycamore, this appears to be about as open and shut as it is in trademark law.
What becomes more interesting is how Sycamore’s legal team used his lawsuit to absolutely torch Stone Brewing for its hypocritical IP practices.
Stone is a pioneer in craft beer. Every craft brewery in the world owes Stone a debt for evangelizing craft beer at a time when most of America thought beer options didn’t extend beyond Budweiser and Coors. To say that Stone has helped invent the modern craft beer experience is no exaggeration. Stone innovated styles of beer that are still used by nearly every brewery on the planet. She provided new breweries with visions of themselves freed from the constraints of “micro” and illuminated by a consumer exploring the vastness of “craft.”
But, as Stone got bigger and bigger, he lost his way. While he used to preach the “community” gospel in craft beer, he now seeks to harm smaller breweries by filing questionable trademark lawsuits against them and stealing the trademarks of those smaller breweries he believes are not they will defend themselves Sycamore is fighting back. Stone stole Sycamore’s KEEP IT JUICY trademark. Unlike the dubious trademark disputes that Stone initiates, this case is based on an actual trademark that is indisputably owned by Sycamore and is being used by Stone for exactly the same purpose in the same markets. So Sycamore will fight to maintain ownership of its trademark and brand name. And, as he does so, he hopes to remind Stone that his existence used to be good for the craft beer industry before Stone decided that competition and innovation were things to harm, not celebrate.
When it comes to controversial prose in a legal presentation, that’s about as good as it gets. And it’s sadly true, but it’s also a good way for a craft brewery to build public support against the story a brand bully likes to tell the public. Stone is not a champion of the craft beer industry and he hasn’t been for a long, long time. He can present his win against Molson Coors as a David versus Goliath scenario all he wants, but it’s a half-truth at best.
And, as always, if you’re going to live by the IP stalker, you might as well die by the IP stalker.
Filed Under: beer, craft beer, keep it juicy, trademark
Companies: Stone Brewing Co., Sycamore Brewing
Reference-www.techdirt.com