In an article originally posted by the Associated Press last week, Yuengling has accused Bud Light of using the trademark it has for Yuengling Flight.

D.G. Yuengling & Son is America’s oldest beer maker at nearly 200 years old, and Anheuser-Busch is one of America’s largest, best-selling macro beer brands.

A light lager, Flight was introduced in February 2020 and is one of the brewery’s fastest-growing brands. Yuengling has demanded that Anheuser-Busch stop using a tagline for its upcoming Bud Light Next zero-carb beer, saying that it closely resembles the tagline trademarked by Yuengling for Flight.

“Get ready for the next generation of beer” is what a now-deleted post read from Bud Light’s Twitter account the Dec. 14. The same graphic appeared on Bud Light’s Instagram and Facebook accounts that day, according to Yuengling. Flight, which was introduced in February 2020 is marketed as the “next generation of light beer”, and has been a registered phrase by Yuengling for over a year.

This isn’t the first time that Anheuser Busch has used the phase either. Andy Goeler, VP of Marketing for Bud Light, used the phrase “the next generation of beer” in a September interview on CNN.

In the below tweet, Yuengling tweeted an image of a cartoon burglar stealing Flight’s catchphrase. “We know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but this is going a bit too far”, Yuengling tweeted at Bud Light. Yuengling then was more serious and sent the St. Louis-based beer giant Anheuser Busch a cease-and-desist letter.

Stealing our tagline, @budlight? pic.twitter.com/4sGqEmOCsH

— Yuengling Brewery (@yuenglingbeer) December 16, 2021

“Flight by Yuengling is one of our lead brands; it’s one of our fastest-growing brands”, Yuengling spokesperson Paul Capelli said. “We’ve created this great product, and if some other light beer takes our tagline and puts it on their brand, obviously that is extremely confusing for the consumer.”

Anheuser-Busch didn’t reply to Yuengling, but instead, Bud Light deleted social media accounts of the posts and replaced them with ones that teased, “Get ready for what’s next”.

“We had hoped they would do the right thing, and in the spirit of the holiday season, they gave us back what belonged to us. We say thanks and happy holidays and have a Flight on us”, Capelli said.