A Monsterous Lawsuit Against Pokemon
Monster Energy (yes, the energy drink company) went on a bit of a crusade in Japan. Anything with the word “monster” in the title was subject to its rampage, and the company’s violent thrashing proved… predictably impotent. Monster Hunter, Monster Musume, and of course, Pocket Monsters, were able to shrug off Monster’s attempts. Nintendo is already known to be pretty defensive when it comes to its IP, so a battle against Pokemon was only going to go one way.
Why would Monster Energy try something like this? What could spark a move so… unique, especially since it scope went far beyond Pokemon? Well, apparently, it’s not unique at all. “It’s well known that Monster Energy is a notorious trademark troll,” said one indie game developer, whose “Monsters & Mortals” game caught Monster Energy’s ire. “Unfortunately, they’re at it again. For a company that likes to target their drinks at gamers, they also like to try to bully & bankrupt game studios with lengthy high dollar litigation. Monster Energy’s lawyers are coming after us right now, because [Dark Deception: Monsters & 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.”
Moves like this, while uncommon, aren’t unheard of in the modern day. Looks like Monster Energy drank the Kool-Aid on this one, but I have no idea what it might have been spiked with to make them thing challenging Pokemon was a good idea. Surely there are better things that a energy drink company could be doing with their time?