from the monster-flex dept
Ah, Monster Energy. For regular readers of Techdirt, the name of the company alone is enough to get your eyes rolling harder than a teenager at a rave. Posts on the company’s trademark bullying ways are so legion that I dare not even begin listing them; if you’re unfamiliar with them, click the link and be sure you have a pillow on your desk or you’re going to suffer a concussion.
Well, Monster is back at it again, this time opposing the trademark application for Monster Squad Del Mar, a fitness training company out of California.
A Del Mar personal trainer has been forced to go up against an energy drink giant. When filing for a registered trademark, Monster Squad Del Mar was stopped by Monster Energy.
“I’m not advertising their drinks. No logos, my logo looks nothing like theirs,” said Herman Jones, owner of Monster Squad Del Mar mobile training.
Frankly, it’s pretty hard to argue with him on the question of the logos.
That simply does not call to mind the Monster Energy logo. No claw marks. Boxing has nothing to do with Monster Energy. The only thing that might even give me a moment’s pause is the use of the green coloration, but that just isn’t enough to constitute trademark infringement.
Which leaves us with the name of the training company itself: Monster Squad Del Mar. Except, of course, that trademark infringement requires there to be public confusion as well as for the two entities to operate within the same marketplace. Unless Monster Energy recently got into the personal fitness business, this ain’t it. But, as is our mantra, trademark bullying occurs because it works, particularly when we’re talking about a big entity bullying a much smaller one.
“This is a big, big company look how much money they got. They got money to get you caught up in court and you won’t be able to pay your fees and you’ll lose any and everything that you have,” Jones said.
Fortunately for Jones, he has found a lawyer that is willing to take the case on pro bono. Not everyone is so lucky. I expect Monster to lose in its opposition, but that won’t change the larger problem: Monster Energy waltzing into disparate marketplaces and lobbing out trademark bombs indiscriminately.
Filed Under: energy drinks, fitness, likelihood of confusion, monster, trademark
Companies: monster energy, monster squad del mar
