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A comment on Monster Energy Goes After Indie Dev for Using the Word 'Monster'. Parent comment

Re:Monster Energy Goes After Indie Dev for Using the Word 'M... by asdff on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @06:03PM (#35446432)
It's not that they object, its that they have a legal team. That team's job is to look for opportunities to take money that is being left on the table. Obviously this is absurd, I'm sure the lawyers filing the claims personally think its absurd too, but if there's a 1/1000th chance of a payout then its worth it because the lawyers for monster are on retainer anyway and their costs are already sunk. They are probably actively trolling for opportunities like this all the time, otherwise they'd be leaving money on the table.
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Re:Monster Energy Goes After Indie Dev for Using the Word 'M... by kube-system on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @06:08PM (#35446477)
They’re not very good lawyers if going after an indie game is their idea of a money grab.

They’re more likely just conservative IP lawyers concerned about dilution.

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Re:Monster Energy Goes After Indie Dev for Using the Word 'M... by asdff on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @06:11PM (#35446505)
They probably go after this and a hundred other things at once which they can do with their size. I'm imagining a madlibs lawsuit template they have a paralegal or even a computer script fill in details when a vaguely relevant target is identified. As the Canadian philosopher W. Gretzky said, you miss 100% the shots you don't take.
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Re:Monster Energy Goes After Indie Dev for Using the Word 'M... by birdyrooster on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @06:13PM (#35446525)
IANAL but I thought this type of action is used to argue in the future that the trademark holder is vigorously defending its use, even if it seems frivolous.
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Re:Monster Energy Goes After Indie Dev for Using the Word 'M... by failrate on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @06:29PM (#35446706)
Trademark holders only need to defend their trademark in the product categories they have registered for that trademark. So, obviously a beverage with the word "monster" would be infringing for the drink trademark, they likely should not pursue for the games product category. I looked up their trademark on TESS: https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:lk... It is extremely broad, including every conceivable product category but is registered for "Monster Energy"
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Re:Monster Energy Goes After Indie Dev for Using the Word 'M... by asdff on Wednesday April 05, 2023 @04:32PM (#35459969)
They might want to plan for the contingency that they might one day release some monster energy related game.
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Re:Monster Energy Goes After Indie Dev for Using the Word 'M... by AlbertCory on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @07:56PM (#35447434)
That's not how litigation works. It is not zero cost for the plaintiff. It is not all "sunk cost."

Besides that they usually hire outside counsel who are used to doing litigation, If that firm isn't based in the city where the suit was filed, then they hire local counsel who's appeared in front of that judge.

There are court costs, witness costs, deposition expenses... it goes on and on. It is definitely not handled all in-house by the Monster legal team.

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Re:Monster Energy Goes After Indie Dev for Using the Word 'M... by DangitBobby on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @11:57PM (#35449107)
And they should get slapped fucking big time for wasting everyone's time and money. Not okay.
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