Monster Energy Threatens Legal Action Against Indie Studio For The Word ‘Monsters’
Indie development studio Glowstick Entertainment, the creator of multiplayer horror party game Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals, is being threatened with legal action by Coca-Cola’s Monster Energy over alleged copyright infringement.
The energy drink company’s lawyers, Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP, has filed a complaint against the studio’s use of the words monster, beast, and unleash; Monster Energy-like fonts, claw mark assets, and even the use of the colors green, white, and black in the game.
According to the legal team’s settlement proposal, Glowstick will be allowed to use “Monsters & Mortals” as long as they don’t use or file trademarks for the word “monster” or any variation of the word, including but not limited to monstrosity, monstrous, or even monsta in any future project, game, goods, or services. They’re even demanding that the studio submit a new logo for their approval.
This isn’t the first time that Monster Energy has bullied other companies for alleged copyright infringement or trademark violations. According to Kotaku, the energy drink company has also filed complaints against restaurants, welders, and a forum for aquarium hobbyists. The company had also succeeded in pressuring Ubisoft into changing the title of its action adventure game Gods & Monsters to Immortals: Fenyx Rising.
Glowstick, however, doesn’t look like it’s backing down. The studio initially agreed to several of the demands but Monster Energy apparently insisted that it was all or nothing and summarily rejected the counter proposal. The indie studio is now calling for a boycott of the company’s products.
“It’s well known that [Monster Energy] is a notorious trademark troll,” tweeted Glowstick CEO Vincent Livings. “For a company that likes to target 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 Monsters & Mortals has the word “Monsters” in it,” Livings added. “They claim that our game is confusingly similar to their energy drink. Yep, that’s really their claim. Rather than roll over, I’m going to fight them in court.”
The way things are going down, it’s probably only going to be a matter of time before Monster Energy goes after Capcom for Monster Hunter and Niche Worlds Cult’s Monsters & Memories. In the meantime, you can check out just how “similar” Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals is to the energy drink on Steam.
Here are the overreaching settlement that #MonsterEnergy sent me. Basically, it demands that in exchange for allowing us to use the name "Monsters & Mortals", we agree to never name any other game any variation of the word "Monster". #indiegamedev #gamedev #ign #kotaku pic.twitter.com/YyXntK7PLn
— Vincent Livings (@VincentLivings) March 29, 2023