Since a jury awarded Stone Brewing a $56 million verdict on March 25 in its trademark infringement lawsuit against Molson Coors over a 2017 Keystone Light rebrand that separated “Key” and “Stone” on cans and packaging, the two companies have buried one another in post-trial filings and motions.
On Monday, Stone Brewing entered a new filing into the record that would amend its request for a permanent injunction that seeks to block Molson Coors from separating “Key” and “Stone” on packaging but would allow the use of “Stone” or “Stones” in reference to the number of cans in a multipack. According to the filing, the amended permanent injunction would:
- Require “Keystone” to “be used as a single word with no separation between ‘Key’ and ‘Stone” on primary or secondary packaging;”
- Prohibit Molson Coors from using “Stone” or “Stones” on cans of Keystone, but allow the use of those words “to identify the number of cans in multipacks in a manner congruent with historical practice;”
- Carry over these restrictions to “any marketing images or advertisements;”
- Require “Keystone” to be used as a full word in “any oral/spoken-word advertisements.”
Stone’s attorney J. Noah Hagey wrote that the “revised proposed order would permit defendant to use the word ‘Stones’ solely to refer to the number of cans of beer that a particular box contains, as defendant’s new packaging appears to do.
“In such circumstances, defendant would be required to include a disclaimer stating that it does not assert any trademark right or interest in the world ‘Stone’ or ‘Stones,’” he added.
Hagey wrote that Molson Coors’ post-verdict packaging refresh of Keystone Light reunites “Key” and “Stone” on cans and the packs. However, Molson Coors continues to use “30 ‘Stones” to describe the number of cans in the package. Stone Brewing “does not object to such de minimis, non-trademark use of the word ‘Stones,’ so long as any such use includes a clarifying notation that defendant does not claim any trademark interest in the word ‘Stone,’” he added.
Nevertheless, Hagey argued that an injunction is necessary to prevent future infringement and wrote that Molson Coors “continues to manufacture and distribute infringing ‘Stone’-centric products as it attempts to eke out the last drops of benefit from its use of the Stone trademark.”
Although Molson Coors has updated some of its digital footprint, including the Keystone Light website, social media pages and some retail sites, other retailers continue to use images of the older packaging, including Sam’s Club, Kroger, Total Wine, and Meijer.
Hagey called a permanent injunction “appropriate and essential to ensure” Molson Coors puts out the refreshed Keystone Light packaging and removes “all infringing materials from commerce and it does not later revert to any infringing designs.”
A hearing on several motions in the case is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. PT Friday, June 17, with another hearing to follow August 8.