Monster Energy Loses Trademark Opposition With Monsta Pizza In The UK
from the pie-in-the-eye dept
For readers of this site, we writers would simply need to utter the name "Monster Energy" to get their eyes rolling. The makers of energy beverages have been notorious in their trademark bullying habits and have built a reputation for being both blowhards and litigious. If one actually reviews our stories about the company, however, these bullying attempts just as often lead to pushback and losses for Monster Energy. And now it seems we have another such instance on our hands.
A little over a year ago, a pizza joint in the UK applied to register its business name, Monsta Pizza, as a trademark. Monster Energy, which again I will point out makes drinks and not pizza, immediately opposed the registration, citing its own trademarks and claiming that the public would somehow be confused. A year and lots of legal fees later, the trademark office has finally ruled that Monster Energy's opposition is denied and Monsta Pizza's mark will be granted. The pizza company will not need to change any of its branding moving forward. Monster Energy has also been ordered to pay some of Monsta Pizza's legal fees.
The folks at Monsta Pizza are understandably pleased.
"On Thursday George Salthouse of the UK Intellectual Property Office ruled that Monster Energy Drinks had failed in their attempt to prevent us using the the name Monsta Pizza.
Its been a long and frustrating battle, which started in June 2017 when we applied to register our trademark, and finally ended in a tribunal hearing in London a few weeks ago and the decision last week.
They objected to our use of the word Monsta on all possible grounds. We decided to fight it rather than give up and rebrand for two reasons; firstly, we really like our name, it perfectly encompasses what we do and our customers like it too. And secondly, we believed their objection was wrong and we weren’t prepared to walk away from all our hard work just because a bully didn’t like what we were doing.
I’ve done that before and its the only thing I’ve ever really regretted.
We’re so pleased that common sense prevailed and incredibly grateful for the support and encouragement we received from everybody who heard about it when we finally made public what was going on.
Now that this is all over we’re roaring to go.
Or as the Monsta says, ‘Pizzaaaaaargh!’
As we've said before, trademark bullying often works, mostly because large companies can drown smaller companies in expensive litigation and oppositions. But it's good to see that occasionally the victims of this bullying are willing to fight back, not to mention that courts occasionally lighten the burden by awarding legal fees.
That said, I don't think anyone expects Monster Energy to cease being such a monster trademark bully.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: monster, trademark, uk
Companies: monsta pizza, monster energy
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Getting started cost are up up up!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The only person not shocked by the outcome of this is the executive at Monster who doesn't seem to mind pissing away profits on dumbasses cases a real lawyer would never bring, b/c it would be a waste of money and damage the brand.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ownership
Because the sanctity of ownership? Clearly, Monster must own the word "Monster" on many levels. And the readers of TD don't believe in ownership.
Seriously if Trademarks are to be narrowly defined, then cases like these should be much more rare. However, the trademark is being used as a club rather than a scalpel.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ownership
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ownership
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ownership
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What if?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What if?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What if?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: What if?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Munster Energy
I prefer my energy Meunster, in the form of cheeeeeese.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
And hope both sides lose?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Would that be a Monster Mash?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
'Our customers are such idiots of COURSE they'd be confused!'
It's an... interesting strategy, 'protecting' your brand by repeatedly acting as though anyone who might buy from you is so monumentally stupid that they'll see 'monster' or any permutation of it and immediately think of only one company, because clearly that word simply didn't exist before they came up with it, and has never been used before them or in other ways.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A quick word from Downing IP
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Utter the Name and Summon the Monster
And along comes a huge, ugly troll, bearing a bunch of overpriced audio/video cables.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]