Big Sky agrees to drop trademark suit against Anheuser-Busch

Big Sky and Anheuser Busch reach agreement out of court

You’ll recall a couple weeks ago we pointed to news coming out of Montana that Big Sky Brewing filed a trademark lawsuit against mighty Anheuser-Busch. The craft brewery alleged that international brewery infringed on its “Hold my beer and watch this” tagline with online video ad campaign. The Missoulian reports that Big Sky and Anheuser-Bush have reached an agreement: Big Sky is dropping the suit and AB InBev is taking down its videos.

From the Missoulian:

In an earlier interview, one of Big Sky’s founders, Bjorn Nabozney, said his company had no ill will toward the larger company and hoped to reach a solution outside of court. At the same time, Big Sky wanted to ensure that the use of the phrase in Bud Light videos didn’t cause confusion about associations between the two companies or a misconception that Big Sky had taken the phrase from Anheuser-Busch.

The phrase appears on the side of Big Sky IPA cans and is used in other merchandise, Nabozney said. The company produced about 50,000 barrels of beer in 2013.

The agreement did not involve any financial component.