Hansen Beverage Company

[troyboy162]

i know monster is a favorite energy drink around here but i thought id share what there parent company is doing to my brothers brewery. they have brought legal action against him for a his beer named "Vermonster". its a beer he made for the anniversary of his brewery and the name is simply a play on our home state of Vermont and the fact that it is a monster of a beer at 10% alcohol. also his use of the name "Vermonster" is trademarked in Vermont already and has been for 4ish years now. anyhow heres a few links if your interested in the details. if you decide to buy Amp or some of those great Buzz Bites from now on...i certainly wont stop you :clap:

http://www.wcax.com/global/video.asp?clipId=4201686&autostart=true
http://www.7dvt.com/2009monster-mash
http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=11291060
http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/2319476

[corax]

Friggin' ridiculous. There's very little chance anyone would confuse the 2 brands, it's just a shame he doesn't have pre-paid legal or some means of taking a swing back at them . . . I don't drink that sugar crap anyway, but I'll make sure I stick to coffee.

[troyboy162]

yea i thought so too. i mean you can tell a monster can from 12 feet away. my brothers beer in contrast is a picture of a farm wrapped around a tall brown bottle.

[4x4mike]

They went after a mini golf place by my house for their logo and name. I think it was called monster mini golf but it's mini golf and has nothing to do with a stupid drink (although the logo and color are pretty similar). Monster almost put them out of business. They're still called monster so I don't know if the golf place won or monster gave up.
Actually it's very similar.
http://www.monsterminigolf.com/

[Scuba]

Wow Troy, You and your brother look and sound almost exactly alike.

Anyway, I dont buy energy drinks but if I get a craving for one someday ill make sure its not a monster.
And maybe Ill print out some of this stuff and put it on the monster machine near my work..

[slosurfer]

Your bro should buy a bunch of domain names that have the word "monster" in it, and fill them with porn and tag words, like action sports, energy, , etc.... :laugh:

ARe they also going after the company "VerMonster" which owns http://vermonster.com ?

[troyboy162]

They went after a mini golf place by my house for their logo and name. I think it was called monster mini golf but it's mini golf and has nothing to do with a stupid drink (although the logo and color are pretty similar). Monster almost put them out of business. They're still called monster so I don't know if the golf place won or monster gave up.
Actually it's very similar.
http://www.monsterminigolf.com/

wow! i do see the similarity's in the logo but my guess is when your company is as big as Hansen then your legal team has time to go on the offense when there not busey....thats a shame. that mini golf is nation wide so id figure they pre-date monster energy drinks by 5-10 years.


Wow Troy, You and your brother look and sound almost exactly alike.

Anyway, I dont buy energy drinks but if I get a craving for one someday ill make sure its not a monster.
And maybe Ill print out some of this stuff and put it on the monster machine near my work..

haha yea we are twins separated by 10 years lol. actually hes like a stronger taller version of me, or i suppose im a weaker shorter version of him since he came along first. there are alot of flyers posted in vermont by vending machines. that would be cool if you did the same. dont get in trouble at work though.



Your bro should buy a bunch of domain names that have the word "monster" in it, and fill them with porn and tag words, like action sports, energy, , etc.... :laugh:

ARe they also going after the company "VerMonster" which owns http://vermonster.com ?

that would be really fun! but then he'd have 10 more letters in his mailbox from the bastards. thats interesting to see a Mass based software company with the name Vermonster? if they dont have the same letter on there desk now, then im sure they will soon.

[slosurfer]

Just an FYI, mnsterenergydrink.com and mnsterenergy.com are both available domain names. :D

[4x4mike]

Couldn't find it online but I'm pretty sure they went after monster.com as well.

[Crinale]

wow thats pretty ridiculous...

[fustercluck]

So Vermonster is a trespass because monster is found in the word? Surely this will not pass muster in court. They'd have claim on 'demonstrater' because as a word jumble monster could be extracted.... What about Halloween? No way they want 100,000,000 little kids ticked off the their monster candy is confiscated.... haha!

[Seanz0rz]

monster cable:

http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=monster+cable&invocationType=wl-gadget&searchsubmit=

theyve been doing this crap for ages, and wont stop. they make crap products and outrageously high prices, then sue the pants off of everyone with the word monster in their name. engadget refuses to cover their products as a result.

[troyboy162]

Matt and "The Monster"- Rock Art Brewery vs. Monster Energy Drink (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbG_woqXTeg&feature=player_embedded#ws)

[Scuba]

That's awesome, Im about to do some cross posting if you dont mind..
Myspace, TTORA, YT..ETC..

[Scuba]

Cross posted on Myspace, Yotatech, TTORA, and FJcruiser forums..

:)

[troyboy162]

post it anywhere you like and thank you! hes getting alot of media exposure about this problem. people just universally seem to hate big company's bullying people around

[Crinale]

cross posted on facebook... and ill put it other places later, but i have an appt in a few mins... lol

[Scuba]

My email to Monster.

Dear monster / Hansen beverage company.

Leave Rock Art Brewery alone, They are not doing anything wrong.
Their beer is a beer, your junk is an energy drink. 2 completely different things.
Big business greed in corporate America is stupid. But leave the small guy with a dream alone. Dont kill his dreams because you guys want to make a few more bucks, You already make enough.
It is disgusting to see this type of behavior. Obviously I am very passionate about this and have been spreading the word to anyone and everyone I know. Excerpts of the story have been posted on local vending machines selling your products.

Just some food for thought. Thanks

[CJM]

^ That letter probably never made it past the inbox and was deleted asap.

I bet you get a nice form letter of reply too man..

Still good job!

[Scuba]

Just giving them some of my thoughts..
Anyone been to their website recently? Users are uploading pictures of rock art brewery
I loled

[troyboy162]

thanks guys! yea if you google my brothers brewery right now all you get is lots of articles with lots of disgusted people. they may get my brother with drawn out courts but it will cost them image and that company is 99% image and 1% product. so i can also see them dropping this

[Small_words]

I just sent a letter to them as well. Don't think it'll make a difference but what the heck. I used to drink Hansen's on occasion, not anymore. By the way, Ben & Jerry's has an ice cream named "Vermonster." I don't imagine they've taken on Ben & Jerry's b/c they'd probably be eaten alive.

[troyboy162]

you guys wont believe it but all the letters, phone calls, and boycotts worked!! monster has given up! i still cant beleive it but modern social networks can be thanked for this. facebook and twitter put out the message at a staggering rate and people all over found out about a little brewery in a little town with a big problem...it impacted monsters sales and that forced them to do something lol. im so happy this is over. when my brother decided to fight back i really worried that he would be wore down in the courts and lose his brewery. thanks to all of you who called, wrote, or even spoke about this. the legal system isnt perfect but the American public can come to the rescue!

[Crinale]

Thats AWESOME! im glad it has worked out... i still wont buy anything hansen anymore though (i never really did, but ill make sure not to from now on)

[Scuba]

you guys wont believe it but all the letters, phone calls, and boycotts worked!! monster has given up! i still cant beleive it but modern social networks can be thanked for this. facebook and twitter put out the message at a staggering rate and people all over found out about a little brewery in a little town with a big problem...it impacted monsters sales and that forced them to do something lol. im so happy this is over. when my brother decided to fight back i really worried that he would be wore down in the courts and lose his brewery. thanks to all of you who called, wrote, or even spoke about this. the legal system isnt perfect but the American public can come to the rescue!



:thumbup: :clap: :thumbup: :clap:


If I could enlarge :D this smilie, It would be HUGE !!!
Congrats to you and your bro Troy. That's just so EFFIN awesome.

[CJM]

WOW, im sorry i was wrong. Congrats!

[slosurfer]

Awesome!!!! :clap: :clap:

[Obi..]

;) Let him know to say he "..tried to see what the competition was all about and tried some of their energy drink, and is filing a suit on them over having twitchyness and gastric issues".

If you can sue Mc D's over spilled coffee, I bet you can over issues with a reaction to their drink.

Would be soo funny and deserved. :D

(Like if you were to sue NOS over having poured some of their drink accidentally into your tank and needed a new engine now.)

[troyboy162]

just a follow up to this story but things are back to normal and my brother is at the tip of the spear for trademark reform discusion. oh and i tryed rogue dead guy ale...very good! lol

Rock Art Trademark Story (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX37kdsnyCo&feature=player_embedded#)

[slosurfer]

:thumbup: Very cool! Hopefully it really does get reformed.

[Scuba]

Dude troy. Didn't you say your brother is coming out here ?

You should get him to bring me a 6 pack :drool: :love:

[slosurfer]

^^^ditto! I'd love to try some vermonster!

Oh yeah, tell him to watch his hair, he's about a 1/2" away from a mullet. :laugh: :flipoff:

[troyboy162]

i wish he could bring a lot out, but rest assured if he did it would be MINE and not even kimi would see it lol. i love his beer and i really do crave it! my brother has the same taste in beer as i do so every one he makes is great to me.

i will ask him if he can bring me a bomber or something. wouldnt mind sharing a bit at the next run.

yeah his hair has been a tradition grip of mine. during my millitary years he was inspired to run buzz cuts, but he is faulting again lol

[slosurfer]

troy, do you know if there's anyway to get some out here? Does he deal with BevMo at all? I know the one here will try to get you whatever, but you usually have to buy at least a case.

[troyboy162]

troy, do you know if there's anyway to get some out here? Does he deal with BevMo at all? I know the one here will try to get you whatever, but you usually have to buy at least a case.

beer movment is weird. you cant ship it through the mail or ups. that beer of the month club thing i think used some loop hole for single beers but i dont think they are even doing it anymore. the closest distributor is in flagstaff. i tryed contacting bevmo for a transphere (kinda like shipping guns through dealers lol) but never heard back from them. got some friends there? i would be buying 5-6 cases if i could.

[slosurfer]

I don't know anyone there, I just asked once if they could get beer and they told me that they could try and that if they can, they usually require you to buy at least a case. That was a long time ago though. I never did pursue it farther than that.

Sounds like we need to find someone heading to Cali along the I40 corridor. :)

I did a beer exchange on pirate4x4 and that was pretty cool. Got to try some good beer from texas and I shipped him out some good beer from here.