Monster Energy Goes After Autobody Shop Because Of It's 'M' Logo And Use Of Green Color

Monster Energy Goes After Autobody Shop Because Of It's 'M' Logo And Use Of Green Color

3 years ago
Anonymous $rH7oE7DjRg

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210225/10371046317/monster-energy-goes-after-autobody-shop-because-m-logo-use-green-color.shtml

For regular readers of Techdirt, Monster Energy is one of those companies that need only appear in the headline of a post before the reader knows that said post will be about some ridiculous trademark bullying Monster is doing. The company has a reputation for being about as belligerent on trademark matters as it could possibly be, lobbing lawsuits and trademark oppositions as though the company lawyers had literally nothing else to do with their time. And, while many, many, many of these bullying attempts fail when the merits are considered, the fact is that the bullying still often succeeds in its goal to use the massive Monster Energy coffers to bully victims into either submission or corporate death.

The really frustrating part in all of this is how often Monster Energy attempts to trademark bully companies that aren't remotely competing in their market. One recent example of this is Monster going after MPT Autobody in South Carolina. For disclosure, one of the founders of MPT reached out to me personally to inform me of exactly what was going on. Based on our conversation and what I can see in public records, the order of events appears to go something like this: