Although the word "monster" has been around a lot longer than Monster Energy drinks, the company apparently believes they've claimed ownership of it.
The drink company is suing the video game developer behind "Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals," claiming a trademark infringement.
Monster Energy doesn't necessarily want to shut down the developer, but they make some strong "non-negotiable" demands.
According to the lawsuit, Monster Energy won't object to Glowstick Entertainment's trademark if the company agrees to stop using titles that use the following forms of the word: monster, monsta, monstrous or monstrosity. Even words that suggest a monster – like beast – are taboo, per the lawsuit.
"I were to agree to their terms, Monsters & Mortals could never have a sequel named 'Monsters & Mortals' and Dark Deception (a game about monsters) could never use 'Monster' in the title. Forever. I would legally give them ownership of that word by agreeing," Glowstick CEO Vincent Livings said on Twitter.
The lawsuit also seeks to prevent the game developer from using "a claw, claw-like design, claw-like markings, or any design confusingly similar" to the energy drink's claw icon, including any design "consisting of multiple, substantially parallel lines."
Additionally, the lawsuit would prevent Glowstick from using a logo that contains "the colors green or white, in whole or in part, regardless of the background behind the marks, or in any color against a background that is principally black or principally green or uses the color combinations of green and black, or green and black and white."
"They demand control over the look of the Monsters & Mortals logo and, in addition to the other terms, they require us to change the scaling of the words and the custom monster-style font. So they own monster looking fonts too apparently," Livings said. "Any logo that has a monster style font will be deemed confusingly similar to Monster Energy's logo. It demands that we never use one for any future games. This means they could demand that we change Dark Deception's logo as well. It can be applied broadly."
Responding to the legal action, Livings said he's not surprised because Monster Energy, which is owned by Coca Cola, is a "bully" in the business world.
"It's well known that Monster Energy is a notorious trademark troll," Livings said on Twitter. "For a company that likes to target drinks at gamers, they also like to try to bully and bankrupt game studios with lengthy high dollar litigation."
Livings has vowed to fight the lawsuit.
"Monster Energy's lawyers are coming after us right now, because
Monsters and Mortals has the word 'Monsters' in it. They claim that our game is confusingly similar to their energy drink. Yep, that's really their claim," Livings said. "Rather than roll over, I'm going to fight them in court."
Livings said he plans to share all communications with the "predatory" drink company with the public "to give other game developers a look at their tactics in case they ever want to put the word 'monster(s)' in their game title and have to deal with Monster Energy as a result."
"Dishonest companies like Monster Energy depend on doing their bullying in secret, while presenting a clean image to their base (athletes & gamers). Showing their true face publicly is the only real way to stop them," he said. "If nothing else, I hope they eventually learn that going after game studios is not in their best interest."
On its official Twitter account, Glowstick Entertainment said, "This type of ridiculous trademark trolling needs to be exposed. Nobody owns the word 'monster.'"
A few years ago, Monster Energy set its legal aim at Ubisoft in a similar fashion over a game that was ultimately released as "Immortals: Fenyx Rising." When the game was originally announced as "Gods & Monsters," the drink company filed a trademark infringement lawsuit. Ubisoft initially opposed the lawsuit, but the case was eventually settled and the game's name changed.
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