Stone Brewing Co. sued Molson Coors Brewing Co. and its MillerCoors subsidiary to halt “MillerCoors’s misguided campaign to steal the consumer loyalty and awesome reputation of Stone’s craft brews and iconic Stone trademark. MillerCoors recently decided to rebrand its Colorado Rockies-themed “KeyStone” beer as “Stone” – simultaneously abandoning KeyStone’s own heritage and falsely associating itself with Stone’s well-known craft brews,” the company says in its complaint.
Stone’s U.S. sales last year exceeded $70 million, placing it among the top 10 craft brewers in the country, “including erstwhile “craft” breweries now operating under MillerCoors and other beer conglomerates,” the complaint says.
The complaint goes on to note that KeyStone’s original name and logo “served to remind consumers of the brand’s Colorado roots and ties to its parent brand, Coors.
“Those ties apparently no longer bind so tight. After a series of corporate mergers and relocations, KeyStone no longer is headquartered in its ancestral home in the Rocky Mountains. The brand is now part of a large “portfolio” of beers under the Molson-Miller-Coors conglomeration, with its U.S. base in Chicago, Illinois. This may explain the company’s new insistence on dropping the “Key-” from its brand in favor of “Stone” – in an effort to chase the craft market and Stone in particular,” the complaint alleges.
It goes on to assert that “MillerCoors’ “Big Beer” brands like KeyStone have suffered most from the rise of tasty brews like Stone. . . . From 2011 to 2016, KeyStone Light sales dropped more than 25%. USA Today recently dubbed KeyStone one of the “Beers Americans No Longer Drink” in a December 2017 article.”
It goes on to note that MillerCoors has been acquiring some craft brewers, and adds:
“Upon these acquisitions, MillerCoors drops prices to supra-competitive rates and ramps up production and distribution. In doing so, it aims to undermine independent craft brewers’ ability to compete while deceptively continuing to advertise its mass-produced brands as “craft” beers.”
MillerCoors has aggressively revamped its packaging in a way that “overtly copies and infringes the Stone trademark. Indeed, MillerCoors has effectively admitted that this copying is intentional.
Before the cans hit shelves, MillerCoors announced in an official blog post that it was launching “a can that plays up the “Stone” nickname.” (http://www.millercoorsblog.com/news/keyStone-light-new-look-15-pack/). A new, self-proclaimed “nickname,” that is.”