Sycamore Founder: Stone Rejected Proposed Licensing Agreement; Charlotte Brewery to Seek Preliminary Injunction over ‘Keep It Juicy’ Trademark

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Sycamore Brewing and Escondido, California-based Stone Brewing will meet Wednesday in federal court, as Sycamore seeks a preliminary injunction to prevent Stone from using Sycamore’s “Keep It Juicy” trademark.

Sycamore filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina last week, alleging that Stone’s use of “Keep It Juicy” on packaging and marketing materials for its Stone Hazy IPA, infringe on Sycamore’s tagline trademark, registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in August.

According to Sycamore co-founder and co-owner Justin Brigham, he spoke with Stone CEO Maria Stipp via phone on Friday to attempt to reach an agreement out of court. Brigham told Brewbound that Stipp said Stone had removed the “Keep it Juicy” slogan off its website and social media, but that company intends “to continue to sell their product until they’re out of it,” which Brigham estimated wouldn’t be until June.

“Basically, it was ‘we’ll stop infringing when we stop infringing,’ is what we were told,” Brigham said.

During his phone call with Stipp, Brigham said he proposed licensing the phrase to Stone to allow the California craft brewery to sell through its remaining product and cover the damages Sycamore believes it has sustained from the alleged infringement. However, the proposition was “coldly flat-out refused,” he added.

“So we never got to chat terms,” he said. “We never chatted any sort of money and it just died on the spot.”

In a statement to Brewbound, Stipp said the first Stone learned of Sycamore’s use of its tagline was “when the brewery sued us last week.”

“The term ‘juicy’ is widely used throughout the industry to describe IPAs, and Stone has likewise used it in connection with its Stone Hazy IPA,” Stipp wrote. “We were surprised by its claim to own that phrase, especially since Sycamore has never even identified its purported mark with a ® or TM symbol on its packaging.

“We are proud of our Hazy IPA and are prepared to defend our (and others breweries’) ability to describe the beer as it is: juicy,” she continued. “But we also have no interest in unnecessary disputes with other members of the craft beer community, so we’re hopeful we can reach an amicable resolution with Sycamore.”

Brigham said Sycamore has settled possible “overlap” issues with out-of-state breweries in the past, but this is the first time the brewery has taken legal action.

“We took the route we did because of who we felt like we were dealing with and after hearing the licensing agreement wouldn’t work, I think that that kind of validates our perception of things,” Brigham said. “I do not want to wake up every day and have this on my plate, but it’s my job. I’ve got to protect our company and our marks, and we have them for a reason. The good of the company is the good of employees, and it’s for the good of consumers.”

Stone launched Stone Hazy IPA in August 2021, the same month Sycamore’s trademark was registered. However, the “Keep it Juicy tagline” was not included in the original press release. Brigham said the packaging with the disputed trademark is a “recent rollout” for Stone, and hasn’t yet been released across Stone’s entire national footprint.

A sales rep for Sycamore first discovered Stone’s use of the tagline in market, Brigham said. He noted that Sycamore took legal action within two weeks of discovering the alleged infringement.

Sycamore distributes in eight states, and has an overlapping distributor with Stone in Virginia, with Specialty Beverage of Virginia.

“I’m not going to be gaslit into thinking on some level that [Stone’s] the victim here, because we brought a lawsuit saying don’t use our trademark,” Brigham said. “I’ve gotten moments where that’s kind of been the energy, but it’s not the case.”

In Sycamore’s complaint, it points out that Stone has filed more than 100 trademark defenses since 2018 – including Broker Brewing Company’s Stonypoint, Reuben’s Brews’ Stone the Crows and Helix Brewing’s Stoner Moment – classifying Stone as a “trademark bully,” defined by USPTO as a trademark owner “that uses its trademark rights to harass and intimidate another business beyond what the law might be reasonably interpreted to allow.”

“Unlike the dubious trademark disputes Stone initiates, this case is based upon an actual trademark inarguably owned by Sycamore that Stone is using for the exact same purpose in the exact same markets,” Sycamore wrote in the complaint. “So, Sycamore will fight to maintain ownership of its trademark and brand.”

Sycamore’s complaint against Stone came two weeks after a San Diego jury awarded Stone $56 million in a trademark infringement trial against Molson Coors Beverage Company regarding the 2017 rebrand of its Keystone Light brand that split “Key” and “Stone” on cans and packaging and emphasized the latter word.