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Stone Brewing is suing MillerCoors over “Stone” branding

Stone Brewing is a fierce defender of craft beer. Just ask co-founder Greg Koch about his thoughts on craft beer vs. big beer.

Today, Greg Koch has announced Stone’s intention to sue MillerCoors the very blatant use of “Stone” in their Keystone branding.

In a YouTube video, Koch goes into detail describing the various ways in which MillerCoors has used “Stone” as a very prominent piece of their beer marketing for Keystone. Koch contends this move is intentional, in order to create consumer confusion.

“In the world of beer, the name “Stone” is ours,” Koch says

Koch claims this isn’t a marketing stunt. “This is a weird way to get publicity. We’d rather talk about our own beer.”

According to Stone Brewing, MillerCoors attempted to file a trademark for Stone but was reject (for seemingly obvious reasons). This hasn’t stopped the brewery from using the very prominent “Stone” in their marketing push.

“Keystone’s rebranding is no accident. MillerCoors tried to register our name years ago and was rejected.  Now its marketing team is making 30-pack boxes stacked high with nothing but the word ‘STONE’ visible. Same for Keystone’s social media, which almost uniformly has dropped the ‘Key.’ We will not stand for this kind of overtly and aggressively deceptive advertising. Frankly, MillerCoors should be ashamed.” – Dominic Engels, Stone Brewing CEO

Koch says this can all go away if they simply put the “Key” back in “Keystone”.

Stone Brewing is represented in the lawsuit by Noah Hagey, Rebecca Horton and Toby Rowe of San Francisco litigation boutique BraunHagey & Borden LLP.

This is a developing story…

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