Comments on: BREAKING: Rock Art Brewery wins, Hansen backs off Monster Energy letter

By: 2009: The Year in Beer News #2 - Young & Hungry - Washington City Paper

2009: The Year in Beer News #2 - Young & Hungry - Washington City Paper — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:12:55 +0000

[...] Rock Art Brewery defeats a Monster – In October, a web campaign helped Rock Art Brewery defend their Vermonster Ale from Monster energy drinks (a.k.a. Hansen Beverage Company, a.k.a. Anheuser-Busch InBev). The public pressure caused the aggressors to back off. [...]

By: Brooke Geery | Extreme Journalist

Brooke Geery | Extreme Journalist — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:28:21 +0000

[...] a little more research should be done. Of course, this isn’t going to be as easy as the Rock Art Brewery vs Monster thing, since you’re probably thinking, or great, these people are against sustainable energy! [...]

By: beersage

beersage — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:49:19 +0000

So the smart thing to do would be to issue the C&D on Friday, negotiate through the weekend, and bow down before the social media riot ensues during the week

By: dave

dave — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:54:19 +0000

In regards to this quote: “Hansen’s contended that they were obligated to issue the C&D letter or else they would lose in similar cases in the future. Does their withdrawal mean that they didn’t achieve that goal or did they just have to issue the C&D letter to be ok?”

From my understanding (not a lawyer, I just read up about this stuff) even with the withdrawal, they (Hansen’s legal counsel) still achieved their goal. The C&D shows they defend their trademarks, and then they follow up on those C&D letters (i.e. the negotiations with Rock Art) showing the C&D is not a “blank threat”. Now negotiating with Rock Art before the C&D probably would have been better for PR, but I am not sure how negotiating first “looks” to a court in trying to defend a trademark. Prior actions for trademark defense are key and the heavier and consistent the prior actions are, legally the better (or at least it seems that way to me). Again, not a legal scholar by any means, and those are just my thoughts.

By: beersage

beersage — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:18:27 +0000

Congrats to you, Jeff, and all the supporters. Certainly had a hand in taming the beast.

By: Lukas Payette

Lukas Payette — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:42:20 +0000

AWESOME NEWS. Glad that it is finally over and I can do other things than constantly checking the internet. Now I just realized- why the hell am I not drinking some Rock Art yet to celebrate??? Gotta get doing that