The Little Fish Eats the Monster

Early this year, Li Chih, owner of the trademark Monsterfishkeepers.com, won a years-long litigation battle against a $28 billion energy-drink powerhouse, Monster Beverage (“Monster”). Just a few months after the Silver Spring, MD based small-business owner filed his mark in 2012, he received a cease and desist for infringing on the energy-drink conglomerate’s trademark. Although it is fairly typical for large companies to file trademark actions against smaller businesses in order to protect their brand, Monster was infamously aggressive for filing the highest number of cases with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board last year among U.S. companies. But Chih beat the odds when he took a stand against the trademark bully by teaming up with a group of students at the Suffolk University Intellectual Property & Entrepreneurship Law Clinic. After four years of work on the clinic’s part, the courts finally granted Chih a victory with the compromise that he could keep the word mark (monsterfishkeeper.com) as long as he removed the devil horns and tail which stylized the “M” in monster making it arguably confusingly similar to Monster Beverage’s logo.

Link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/02/29/these-college-students-took-on-one-of-americas-top-trademark-bullies-and-won/