{"id":155347,"date":"2023-04-12T22:00:33","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T22:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culture.org\/?p=155347"},"modified":"2023-04-12T22:00:33","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T22:00:33","slug":"monster-beverage-corporation-targets-glowstick-entertainment-pokemon-and-monster-hunter-in-trademark-crusade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culture.org\/special-interest\/monster-beverage-corporation-targets-glowstick-entertainment-pokemon-and-monster-hunter-in-trademark-crusade\/","title":{"rendered":"Monster Beverage Corporation Targets Glowstick Entertainment, Pok\u00e9mon, and Monster Hunter in Trademark Crusade"},"content":{"rendered":"           <!--  <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n                jQuery(document).ready(function() {\r\n                    jQuery(\".key-accordion-item .key-menu\").on(\"click\", function() {\r\n                        if (jQuery(this).parent().hasClass(\"active\")) {\r\n                            jQuery(this).next().slideUp();\r\n                            jQuery(this).parent().removeClass(\"active\");\r\n                        } else {\r\n                            jQuery(\".key-content\").slideUp();\r\n                            jQuery(\".key-accordion-item\").removeClass(\"active\");\r\n                            jQuery(this).parent().addClass(\"active\");\r\n                            jQuery(this).next().slideDown();\r\n                        }\r\n                    });\r\n                })\r\n            <\/script> -->\r\n\r\n\r\n            <!-- start html -->\r\n\r\n            <div class=\"news-key-takeaway-wapper\">\r\n                                <span style=\"background-color:#39b54a;\">Key Takeaways<\/span>\r\n                <ul class=\"news-key-nbox\" style=\"border-color:#39b54a;background-color:rgba(57, 181, 74, 0.1);\">\r\n                                                        <li>Monster Beverage Corporation, the company behind Monster Energy drinks, is aggressively targeting companies that use \"monster\" in their names or products, regardless of their size.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>The company has a history of trademark objections, including suing small businesses and targeting major videogame franchises like Pok\u00e9mon and Monster Hunter.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>Indie game studio Glowstick Entertainment is the latest company targeted by Monster Beverage Corporation for its horror game, Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals, due to its alleged similarity to Monster Energy's brand.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>Glowstick Entertainment's CEO plans to fight back against Monster in court and is advocating for a boycott of the energy drink company.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>Monster has proposed a negotiation that would allow the use of the name Monsters and Mortals in exchange for an agreement that the studio would never use any variation of \"monster\" in any future game titles.<\/li>\r\n                                                <\/ul>\r\n            <\/div>\r\n            \n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monster Beverage Corporation, the company behind the popular Monster Energy drinks and a notorious trademark bully, is once again making headlines for its aggressive trademark objections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This time, the company has targeted indie game studio Glowstick Entertainment, pushing them to change the name of their horror game, Dark Deception: Monsters &amp; Mortals, due to its alleged similarity to Monster Energy&#8217;s brand.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Bullying Small and Big Companies Alike<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monster Beverage Corporation, partially owned by Coca-Cola and boasting a market cap of $55 billion, has a history of attacking companies that use &#8220;monster&#8221; in their names or products.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the more well-known instances occurred in 2020, when Ubisoft changed the name of its game from Gods &amp; Monsters to Immortals: Fenyx Rising after Monster&#8217;s complaints.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The company has also sued a small Ohio restaurant for using &#8220;monster&#8221; in its signage and engaged in a years-long legal battle with a group of fishkeepers who wanted to sell merchandise with the name of their online forum, &#8220;MonsterFishKeepers.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>                        <!-- <div class=\"container-c\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- <div class=\"row justify-content-between\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- <div class=\"col-post-800\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- start html -->\r\n                        <div class=\"blockquote-wapper\">\r\n                            <div>\r\n                                <span class=\"text_quot\">\r\n                                    <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monster Beverage Corporation, partially owned by Coca-Cola and boasting a market cap of $55 billion, has a history of attacking companies that use &#8220;monster&#8221; in their names or products.<\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/span>\r\n\r\n                                <div class=\"quot_icon\">\r\n                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-content\/themes\/culture\/icons\/i_quot.svg\" type=\"image\/svg+xml\">\r\n                                <\/div>\r\n                            <\/div>\r\n\r\n                            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"quot_tick\" src=\"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-content\/themes\/culture\/icons\/i_quot_tri.svg\" type=\"image\/svg+xml\">\r\n                        <\/div>\r\n                        <!-- end html -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                                    <\/h2>\n<h2><strong>Ties to the Videogame Industry<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With deep connections in the videogame industry, Monster Beverage Corporation sponsors streamers and events.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, it has also targeted some of the most beloved game franchises, such as Pok\u00e9mon and Monster Hunter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The company has filed over 134 trademark objections in Japan and over 100 objections in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite these objections, Pok\u00e9mon games have been released with their original names, while other companies haven&#8217;t been as fortunate.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Current Dispute with Glowstick Entertainment<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Glowstick Entertainment&#8217;s CEO, Vincent Livings, has taken to Twitter to call out Monster Beverage Corporation, referring to them as a &#8220;bully.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He revealed that the company proposed a negotiation, allowing the use of the name Monsters and Mortals in exchange for an agreement that the studio would never use any variation of &#8220;monster&#8221; in any future game titles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Livings also mentioned that Monster demanded the studio never use a green and white logo on a black background for any future games.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Livings plans to fight back against Monster in court and is advocating for a boycott of the energy drink company.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He is currently in the process of filing a Motion for Summary Judgment to halt Monster Energy&#8217;s legal team from prolonging the process and draining Glowstick Entertainment&#8217;s financial resources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The motion has a 50-50 chance of success and can still be appealed, but it would save the indie studio valuable time if it succeeds.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":155348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[411],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-interest"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}