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David & Goliath: Rock Art Brewery vs Monster

Oct 17th, 2009 by

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Posted in Beer

10 Responses to “David & Goliath: Rock Art Brewery vs Monster”

  1. ErichD says:
    October 18, 2009 at 4:26 am

    That truly sucks. Is there anything the Vermont business community can do about this? Think about it, if this beer called “Vermonster” went DogFish, you’d have a burgeoning tourist attraction, not to mention quite a bit more attention for the state.

    They could look on the right side: at least they haven’t sued y MOnster Cable (yet).
    http://www.madmartian.com/legal/response.htm

    http://gizmodo.com/393365/ (includes link to a list of things “Monster will soon sue.”)

    Maybe they can trademark “Up Yours, Noel Lee” and sell it as a limited edition 750ml. (please see if you can ship to us poor folk down here in TX)

    And they could maybe talk to Garrett Oliver, whose BRooklyn Brewery was making a “Monster” brew prior to the creation of Monster Energy Drink or Monster cables. Perhaps he can sue them for “defamation of my good beer name.”

  2. Joe F. says:
    October 18, 2009 at 11:15 am

    This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a long time! My amazement at the greed of corporate America is only surpassed by my amazement that people actually drink Monster energy drinks…1 billion dollars worth at that! The dentists of the world must love it, reminds me of this: http://www.hulu.com/watch/3516/saturday-night-live-hedley-and-wyche

  3. dave says:
    October 18, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    Unfortunately Brooklyn Brewery abandoned its trademark application (for Federal status at least… I believe) back in 2006, as pointed out on A Good Beer Blog: http://beerblog.genx40.com/archive/2009/october/moreonthatus . It also seems Monster Energy is involved in a bunch of other trademark matters. Still as pointed out by you (David) and me (http://www.sevenpack.net/?p=3392), if you confuse the two products, you have other issues.

  4. Katherine says:
    October 18, 2009 at 10:48 pm

    Rock Art’s next brew should be “Schmenergy Drink IPA.” See what happens there.
    Thanks Dave for posting this story. It’s an interesting topic. I don’t claim to know the legal system well enough to make any sound points but I totally agree with you that there is no confusing the two products.
    I did look at some of Monster’s counter points on Facebook which were interesting to read.
    Look forward to the stunning conclusion. One things for sure, Rock Art Brewery is a name people know now…silver lining.

  5. David Flaherty says:
    October 19, 2009 at 1:04 am

    First off, lets pay homage to the classic SNL clip; Chris Farley at his finest (thanks for posting, joe)…

    The thing that strikes me is that this could be a great example of social media’s growing power to overturn the firehose of money that these corporations can blast the little guys out of the water with.

    I recently heard about the PR disaster caused by a musician who’s guitar was mishandled by the airlines and they wouldn’t remedy the problem. His solution? Make a song about it and post it on YouTube: http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/2009/07/song_over_guita.html

    Just think…through rallying support thru blogs, facebook, twitter, YouTube and emails, we can create an equally strong tide.

    My hope is that come tomorrow morning, some high-paid PR rep will sheepishly suggest that they back off as its become a public relations disaster for Monster to pursue it. And maybe in an even more ideal world, they’ll flush their “energy” drinks down the toilet and ask Matt and Renee if they can market their beer for them (or at least clean their brew tanks).

  6. Katie says:
    October 19, 2009 at 10:14 am

    Hey, just wanted to throw in my two cents…I wrote about this as well on my blog, and I’ve included a link at the bottom of the post which takes you to a petition…Every “signature” helps, guys.

  7. David Flaherty says:
    October 19, 2009 at 10:18 am

    Right on, Katie. Thanks for posting.

  8. BOYCOTT MONSTER ENERGY « SUPPORT ROCK ART BREWERY SAVE VERMONSTER says:
    October 20, 2009 at 1:16 am

    […] GRAPES AND GRAINS — “David & Golliath: Rock Art Brewery vs. Monster” […]

  9. dave says:
    October 22, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    Rockart won… they get to keep the name Vermonster. http://www.sevenpack.net/?p=3439

  10. David Flaherty says:
    October 23, 2009 at 2:45 pm

    Yep yep! Indeed its true. Rock Art Brewery wins its battle against Monster Energy Drinks; Vermonster lives! Wow…power to the people indeed….http://tiny.cc/tCvu4
    Just stay out of the “energy drink” business they say to Rock Art…hmm…yeah, guess thats doable. Ha.

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