Stone Brewing Sues MillerCoors Over Keystone Branding

Stone Brewing in Escondido, California has sued MillerCoors over the changed branding to its Keystone line of light beers.

The lawsuit was filed this week in federal court, and Greg Koch, founder and CEO of Stone Brewing announced this news in a video via Stone Brewing's Twitter feed and YouTube channel:

The suit from Stone Brewing alleges that MillerCoors is attempting to co-opt Stone Brewing's name and create confusion among consumers. Keystone currently is running social media campaigns that highlight the word "stone" on its cans (which Stone Brewing, of course, has a trademark for) and the cans have been redesigned to minimize and remove the "Keystone" portion of the brand's name.

"Keystone’s new can design overtly copies and infringes the Stone trademark," the lawsuit states.

Stone also contends the greater threat of "big beer" interference in its suit, claiming that this is all part of macro beer's strategy to "wrestle back market share" from independent craft breweries like Stone.