Another Big Dog Trying to Keep the Little Ones Down.
Thursday, October 15th, 2009 by Hannah
Sheesh. Can’t the craft breweries get a break?
Deron sent me this article last night from NACS Online. Apparently Hansen Beverage Co., the manufacturer of Monster Energy Drinks, has ordered a small craft brewery out of Vermont to stop promoting and selling their Vermonster craft brew, all because of the word "monster" being in the beer’s name.
Rock Art Brewery has been making and selling their Vermonster brew since 2007, and now all of a sudden, Hansen Beverage Co. fears that this particular beer will confuse customers and dilute their own Monster Energy brand. Really? Beverage companies can’t even use the word "monster" anymore? Who’s next – think they’ll target Brooklyn Brewery for their Monster Ale, too?
How long until no word is left without a trademark?
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October 15th, 2009 at 11:46 am
One of the few things that I’d love to take away from the people of the U.S., particularly big companies like the makers of Monster Energy drink, is their overdeveloped sense of entitlement.
Few things pain me more than to read about yet another frivolous law suit tying up the Justice system while someone (in this case, a company) attempts to show off their big giant balls (of cash – uh-hum) and pound the little guy out of existence.
On the surface, this is about claiming for a common word in the English language, “monster” – which in and of itself has my “Ridiculous Meter” pegged-out. What’s next? The cutsie little puppet on Sesame Street? Should we just start referring to him as “Cookie” rather than “Cookie Monster”? Should we just refer to the job search site as “.com” rather than Monster.com? How is it we’ve come to this point? Give me a break.
Of course that’s not all there is to this. Below the shallow, transparent surface, is a not-so-well disguised a very real attempt to put someone out of business – to put people out of work, and to tie things up in litigation, pushing the little guy out of business by directly and indirectly forcing them to pay through the nose for the exorbitant legal costs while all this gets tied up in a legal pissing match.
This is complete and utter bs and on a personal level, I would urge any of you who rely on an energy drink to get your day going to find someone other than Hansen Beverage Co. to get your fix.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Ed – I’m with you all the way. I used to be a huge Java Monster energy drink fan (as you know) :) but I will simply switch to another product or to just the coffee pot, itself.