The California Department of Public Health has rescinded a requirement that alcoholic beverages must be served with a meal, according to an industry advisory issued by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Iconic Portland, Maine craft brewery Allagash returns to Florida for a limited time; Carlsberg and Marston’s announce proposed JV; April domestic tax paid Shipments decline 4.9%; judge approves bid for bankrupt Craftworks; and more headlines from the week.

More than a year after it began, a federal circuit judge ruled that Anheuser-Busch InBev is free to continue its advertising campaign calling out the use of corn syrup in Molson Coors Beverage Company’s flagship light lagers.

San Diego-headquartered Stone Brewing’s long-running trademark infringement lawsuit against Molson Coors’ Keystone brand will move to trial in October. Stone first brought the lawsuit against MillerCoors in February 2018 in the U.S. District Court Southern District of California, alleging that the April 2017 packaging and marketing refresh for the company’s Keystone Light brand that more prominently featured the word “Stone” infringed on the craft brewery’s intellectual property.

Four lawsuits claiming that Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) omitted “material information” from a proxy statement related to the craft beer maker’s planned merger with Anheuser-Busch InBev have been dropped after the Portland, Oregon-headquartered company filed a supplemental report, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday.

The parent company of Brizzy Seltzer Cocktails has filed a lawsuit against Molson Coors Beverage Company in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, alleging that the second largest U.S. beer manufacturer’s Vizzy Hard Seltzer name “is nearly identical to Brizzy in sight, sound and appearance” and infringes upon its trademark.

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking additional information and documentation from Anheuser-Busch InBev and Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) as the two companies work toward a planned merger that was announced last November, according to a filing this morning with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Founders Brewing Company’s Detroit taproom will remain closed through the end of 2019. In the wake of a now-settled racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee against the Grand Rapids, Michigan-headquartered craft brewery, the company said it will reopen the taproom in “early 2020” and donate all profits to local charities and organizations “through at least 2022.”

A federal magistrate judge last Thursday filed a report and recommendation order largely siding with Stone Brewing’s claims that MillerCoors did not provide all available marketing materials for its Keystone brand during the lawsuit’s discovery phase.

Founders Brewing Company and former employee Tracy Evans announced Thursday they have agreed to settle the racial discrimination lawsuit against the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based craft brewery. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and the lawsuit has been dismissed.

Founders Brewing Company temporarily shuttered its Detroit taproom on Friday amid growing backlash following the leak of a deposition in an ongoing racial discrimination lawsuit against the company. Meanwhile, diversity and inclusion director Graci Harkema, who the company hired in January 2019, announced her resignation.

Anheuser-Busch filed two motions Tuesday night in its ongoing lawsuit with MillerCoors in an effort to unseal its heavily redacted counterclaim accusing its top competitor of stealing its trade secrets and receive a summary judgement.

The legal battle between the two largest beer makers in the U.S. escalated today, as Anheuser-Busch today accused MillerCoors of breaking state and federal laws by stealing trade secrets regarding beer recipes for its two top-selling brands, Bud Light and Michelob Ultra. In the heavily redacted 66-page amended complaint and counterclaim filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, A-B alleges that two of its former employees who now work for MillerCoors and its parent company Molson Coors either shared confidential trade secrets with their current employers or sought information from current employees about the making of A-B products.

In this week’s Last Call: A-B’s Natural Light Hard Seltzer and Big 12 Conference Announce Partnership; Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors Corn Syrup Lawsuit Continues; MillerCoors to Launch 4 New Beers in 2020; August US Beer Shipments Decline