Here’s the setup to this one: large corporation tries to stop smaller corporation from producing a product with a similar name. It started as a classic trademark protection case. What followed, however, took any course but the traditional one, as social media – not lawyers – dictated the terms of the settlement.
You might have heard of Monster energy drinks, but you’ve probably never heard of the small Rock Art brewery in Vermont. Unless you actually live in Vermont, of course, in which case you might be familiar with their popular brew called “The Vermonster.”
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On September 14th, brewery owner Matt Nadeau received a cease-and-desist letter from the Hansen Beverage Co. informing him that his “Vermonster” beer violated a trademark they held for their energy drink. Matt called his lawyers, met with some trademark lawyers, and was told the same thing by all of them: the case doesn’t have merit, but you don’t have the funds to fight it. If this is to be believed, it meant that Hansen was hijacking the justice system to bully a smaller company that couldn’t afford a long, drawn-out legal battle. If you don’t believe this, you’d say that Hansen was fighting to preserve its own trademark by employing tactics used by lots of companies in the past. If you don’t actively protect a trademark, you can lose it. Just ask the makers of linoleum, aspirin, or the zipper (click here for more).
Matt and his brewery turned to friends and media outlets for support, and the effort snowballed from there. A simple email to the fans of Rock Art Brewery (and you thought email lists were dead) and a few interviews on local news was all it took to get the ball rolling. That same day, Monster drinks were taken off the shelves of local stores. On October 14, Green River Pictures posted an interview with Matt on YouTube.
Twitter hash tags #Isupportrockart and #boycottmonster started spreading and a Facebook group called “Vermonters and Craft Beer Drinkers Against Monster” reached over 18,000 fans. Radio interviews in Texas and New Mexico and mentions in the New York Times and Boston Globe followed. On October 21, the two sides came to an agreement, and Rock Art can continue making their Vermonster beer.
So is Hansen a bully, or a responsible corporation? Legally, we’ll never know, because the case was settled, but in the public eye, it became clear how they were viewed. So what can we learn from this? Well, there are two lessons to be learned here…
1.Social media works well when it’s on your side
2.Social media can be killer when it’s on the other guy’s side
This case is one of the many that just shows how movements can spread like wildfire through the social media, gathering support that you can’t buy with traditional advertising.
But Matt’s not stopping with his victory. He wants to continue the fight for small businesses.
