USA: Molson Coors tries to claw back trademark victory from Stone Brewing

If the high-profile jury trial between Molson Coors and Stone Brewing was a battle of David and Goliath, then its appeal amounts to a sequel in which Goliath tries to claw back David's victory, Courthouse News Service reported on November 19.

Molson Coors argued before a panel of Ninth Circuit judges on November 19 that the decision in a trademark dispute against Stone Brewing was based on faulty legal reasoning and asked the panel to reverse the lower court verdict.

“No reasonably prudent beer consumer would ever confuse the two, especially because Stone IPA is priced at three to four times the price of the economy Keystone Light,” said Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan attorney Kathleen Sullivan, who represents Molson Coors.

Oral arguments took place before a three-judge panel in the Robert F. Peckham U.S. Courthouse in San Jose.

San Diego-based craft brewer Stone Brewing sued the beer conglomerate previously known as Miller Coors in 2018 claiming its success was derailed when the company tried to revive waning sales of its economy beer Keystone Light by rebranding the lager.

The new, flashy bright blue Keystone Light beer cans featured the word “stone" in a large, modern, slanted script, separate from the word “key” in a smaller script. The revamped logo adorned beer cans which flooded store shelves in 2017. Stone Brewing, which has used “STONE” as a trademark since the early 1990s, claims its brand suffered directly after the introduction of the new beer cans, which confused consumers and tarnished their reputation among beer drinkers.

In 2022, an eight-member trial jury sided unanimously with Stone Brewing, awarding it $56 million in damages.

On November 19, Sullivan argued that Keystone's maker used the term “stones” to refer to the beers from 2010 to 2018, including as part of the slogan "hold my stones," in TV, radio and billboard ad campaigns.

Sullivan also said no rebrand ever took place to capitalize of Stone Brewing’s name, calling her client’s change in design a “trivial” packaging change — not a rebrand, but a “refresh.”

“There’s not a lot of real estate in marketing, so sometimes you have to split things into two lines.”

U.S. Circuit Judge Susan P. Graber, a Bill Clinton appointee, pushed back. She noted that after the change, “stone” was much more prominent on the can, calling into question the company’s motivations.

Sullivan dismissed this reasoning. “If the Hard Rock Cafe starts italicizing 'rock,' that doesn't mean it now infringes Dwayne Johnson — The Rock's — trademark,” she countered.

“Well, it might be if he owns a restaurant,” chimed in U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick J. Bumatay, a Donald Trump appointee.

Molson Coors also says the case never should have gone to trial because Stone Brewing missed its window to sue.

Stone Brewing sent a cease and desist letter to Molson Coors in 2010 over its use of the terms “stone,” “stones” and “hold my stones,” but didn’t file a complaint until 2017 when it claims to have begun suffering from the rebranded cans.

“Once we weren't sued by 2014, we were entitled to think they didn't sue us,” said Sullivan, referring to the statute of limitations.

Meanwhile, Stone Brewing claimed that consumers were definitively confused by the new branding, citing studies it produced and anecdotal evidence from social media posts and witness testimony.

The California brewer claims its sales losses weren't due to the natural ebb and flow of the market, but rather, were the direct result of confusion over Keystone’s new can designs, which suggested an association with economy brands like Keystone.

“All of a sudden, Stone was no longer cool,” said Stone Brewing's attorney Noah Hagey, of the firm BraunHagey & Borden.

Customers who had bad experience with Keystone Light, believing mistakenly that they were drinking a premium craft beer from Stone Brewing, switched to other craft brands like Lagunitas, Hagey said, when given the option in grocery stores.

“Now, Lagunitas was able to pull craft beer shelf space away from Stone,” the attorney said.

The panel, rounded out by the Barack Obama-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Michelle Friedland, did not indicate when it would issue a ruling.

A spokesperson for Stone Brewing declined to comment on the matter.

Courthouse News contacted Molson Coors for a comment but has not yet received a response.

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