Stone Beer Squabbles Spotlight Craft Brew Trademark Terrain (1)

Stone Brewing Co. recently walked out of one courtroom into another, emblematic of a craft beer scene that’s tailor-made for trademark litigation.

The San Diego brewer won a $56 million jury verdict in late March from MillerCoors LLC over its Keystone beer rebrand that emphasized “Stone” on the label. Then Stone was itself sued two weeks later for allegedly knocking off smaller craft brewer Sycamore Brewing LLC’s “Keep it Juicy” tagline. The court stopped Stone from using the line on packaging during the suit.

Craft brewers used to consider branding a name written in erasable chalk in a taproom. But ...