Labatt Brewing Company has no intention of changing the advertising for its Kokanee brand even though Molson Coors Canada has filed a legal claim that the logo used in a recent Kokanee campaign infringes on the Coors Light trademark.
In a statement of claim in federal court, filed Sept. 14, Molson Coors accuses the Labatt Brewing Company Limited, which makes and distributes Kokanee, of using a mountain image in its logo that is similar enough to that of the Coors logo to confuse consumers. For the alleged intellectual property rights violation, Molson Coors is demanding that Labatt cease using the logo in any advertising material and pay damages of $10 million.
Yesterday, Labatt issued a statement to Canada’s marketing media in defense of its use of mountain imagery.
“Mountains are part of our history and heritage. Why wouldn’t we continue to use mountain imagery when Kokanee is brewed in the mountains? Every drop of Kokanee is brewed high up in the Kootenay Mountains. We are surrounded by snow capped mountains, glaciers and clean mountain air. It’s only natural that our surroundings would inspire us, and as such speaks to the integrity of our mountain logo,” the statement reads.
Jamie Humphries, director of local premium brands at Labatt, said the image in question, which appears at the end of a recent Kokanee television spot underneath the brand’s traditional logo, as well as on a brand website, does not infringe on Coors’ intellectual property and suggested the suit was an attempt to bully a smaller, regional brand (Kokanee is distributed only in Western Canada).
“[The image] is only on-screen for about one second and it only lives at the end of a Kokanee commercial, so naturally we’re pretty confused by their claim that consumers are going to confuse it with Coors Light,” said Humphries. “Since the mid-1960s, we’ve associated and promoted Kokanee with mountain imagery and icons, so we were kind of shocked when a big national brand comes along and sues us for $10 million for using a mountain image.
“You’ve got a brand that’s produced nowhere near the mountains suing a brand that’s from the mountains for using a mountain in their advertising,” said Humphries. “We don’t think [the suit] has a lot of merit, but we’re taking it seriously.”
Adam Moffat, manager of brand and marketing public relations for Molson, said the Kokanee statement–which was attributed to Columbia Brewery, the Labatt-owned brewer that produces Kokanee, but makes no mention of the parent company–is misleading.
“We’re not in a suit with the small brewing company they suggest in the statement,” said Moffat, who added that Labatt is itself owned by the brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev. “I think it comes from trying to play David versus Goliath, but in that scenario, we’re David.
“We’re also not challenging the mountain imagery, we’re challenging the stylized mountain icon. That’s a brand icon for Coors Light that we’ve invested heavily in communicating and developing, and they’ve come out with a very similar, stylized double-peak mountain.”
The legal battle comes three weeks after Labatt filed its own lawsuit against Brick Brewing Co., which alleges that marketing and packaging for the latter company’s Red Baron Lime Lager is too similar to that of Labatt’s Bud Light Lime beer brand.
