Stone Brewing Company has filed its first post-trial motion seeking a permanent injunction to prevent Molson Coors from “ongoing infringement of the Stone trademark” in the wake of its $56 million jury award following last month’s trademark infringement trial.
Attorneys for the San Diego craft brewery filed the motion on April 4 after jurors unanimously decided that Molson Coors’ Keystone Light packaging refresh that separated “Key” and “Stone” on cans and boxes infringed upon Stone’s trademark, although not willfully.
“Despite that verdict, defendant continues to brazenly infringe Stone’s trademark, including in ways that could easily have been corrected,” Stone’s attorneys wrote, pointing to the Keystone Light’s homepage urging consumers to “Grab a Stone” and Instagram posts that “present ‘Stone’-centric posts.”
Stone’s attorney wrote that due to Molson Coors not voluntarily pulling the cans and packaging, it is seeking the permanent injunction to stop “any further infringement of the Stone mark, requiring defendant to immediately cease producing and distributing the infringing packaging, and directing defendant to withdraw all infringing packaging and advertising from the marketplace.”
“Five years of infringement is enough,” they continued. “Defendant has known this day could come and has had more than adequate opportunity to develop new, non-infringing marketing and packaging.”
In a statement, Molson Coors said it would “oppose the motion for an injunction.”
“[A]mong other things, the requested relief is overbroad and not supported by the evidence,” the statement read. “We are confident in our case, especially given that the jury explicitly rejected the assertion that MillerCoors willfully infringed the trademark.
“This is one of many motions and requests the court will decide in the coming weeks, and those decisions could significantly impact the jury’s verdict — or nullify it altogether.”
As Brewbound previously reported, Molson Coors chief legal officer Anne-Marie D’Angelo told the company’s wholesalers that the company is in the process of a packaging refresh for Keystone Light.
According to Stone’s attorneys, Molson Coors’ infringement has generated more than $750 million in profits while causing “massive irreparable harm to Stone” that “has destroyed the goodwill that Stone had built up over the years amongst its customers, caused Stone to lose market share, and taken away Stone’s pricing power.”
In the process, they say Stone has lost more than 10,000 points of distribution at retailers across the country and seen its sales volume decline more than 20%.
Stone’s attorneys argue that the infringement by Molson Coors has “irreversibly altered” Stone’s trajectory “and it is doubtful it will ever regain the momentum it had prior to defendant’s infringement.”
“In other words, Stone will likely never regain the ground it lost at defendant’s hands, but it will surely not have even the slightest hope of doing so unless this court enjoins defendant from its ongoing infringement,” Stone’s attorneys wrote.
In the filing, Stone is seeking the order to require Molson Coors to:
- “Cease any further infringement of the Stone trademark;
- Cease production, use, shipment, and/or distribution of any rebranded Keystone packaging or other Stone-formative packaging;
- Cease and desist posting or otherwise disseminating any Stone-formative advertising, any images of Stone- formative packaging, any images of Rebranded Keystone packaging, and/or any images of the free-flying Stone;
- Remove and preserve all Stone-formative advertising or images of Stone-formative packaging or rebranded Keystone packaging currently appearing, including all social media posts, banner advertisements, or other internet-related marketing; and
- Remove from the market all rebranded Keystone packaging and all billboards, point-of-sale materials, in-store merchandising, or other physical advertising or marketing materials that fall within the definition of Stone-formative advertising.”
In addition to the permanent injunction, Stone’s attorneys have signaled they will seek to recoup attorneys’ fees for the company, as well as treble damages, which could amount to three times the compensatory damages.
It’s expected the judge in the case will decide on the motions in the coming months.