Of Monsters and Lawsuits

 And bad faith.

The relationship between art and court has been... tumultuous across time, but in the modern world we have of ownerships and profits, it's a necessary link to forge. Artists depend on the work of the courts to protect themselves from some of the most dastardly threats they can face in their day-to-day, such as plagiarism, whilst maintaining that typical aloof objectiveness that is requisite for all walks of law. But just as with any legal branch, there is nuance to be taken in account, loopholes to be breached and bad actors who seek for nothing more than to take advantage of the letter of the law to break it's spirit. By and large this is why the Law doesn't operate as a cold machine of arbitration, and instead is populated with mediators and debators who argue it's points to keep it's heart. And it's going to be in the hands of these lawyers and Judges to knock the sense back into people when the conglomerates start getting the idea to use the law as it's own blunt instrument.

I'm sure you've heard of Monster Energy by this point in your life. The huge 2000's era company responsible for their giant market share of the energy drinks market, which they abuse with a flood of a mediocre concoctions of electrolytes and bile. I do not like Monster Energy drinks. It's a matter of taste. But lately I and the Internet have been gifted a purely objective reason to find the brand distasteful as well, and as I've prepped you all for- it's to do with the way that the company has taken control of copyright law in an abusive fashion to lord over their apparent ownership of the word 'Monster'. Yes, you heard me right. One of the most common nouns in the English language, and Monster Energy believe themselves it's sole arbiter out into the world. How bizarre.

A company and game I'm certain you've not heard about, unless you've literally looked up this exact story before, is 'Dark Deception: Monsters and Mortals' by Glowstick Entertainment. Actually, you may have heard it bubbling in development about thanks to it's brief time circling the horror-game scene on Youtube, back before the 'Monsters and Mortals' subtitle. (It's the game with the giant monkey clanging it's symbols, if you were a viewer of that sort of content around it's hey day.) And as I'm sure you've picked up on, this game is finding itself on the business end of a lawsuit thanks to that very subtitle they slapped onto their title, thus bringing this issue roaring back to the forefront of industry minds. Quite galling considering the game has never seen more that 300 players at one time.

Now if you've ever seen a 'these names are too similar' lawsuit before, you probably know exactly what's coming next, don't you? Monster are claiming that the use of 'Monsters' is similar enough to their own brand to cause confusion in potential customers who might mistake one brand for another. That's right, I remember all the times I go to the shop hoping to score a can of warm radioactive waste and accidentally slip my phone out of my pocket and buy a game on Steam instead; truly this grates hard against the spirit of copyright protection as an institution. But can Monster slide by anyway with their sheer might as a giant litigious corpo? Can we live in a world where the 'drink of gamers' (gamers who love their computer rigs so much they want their insides to glow multicoloured) is itself a subjugator of the very games they propose to represent?

Now the reason that this lawsuit is starting to really blow up in the here and now is because those who are being attacked, Glowstick, want their plight to be the lighting rod incident that turns the tide against the litigation trolls over at Monster. They've reached out to the media in order to make sure everyone is well aware of the simply ludicrous proposition of owning a commonplace term, and perhaps in doing so help turn their own case over to an advantageous position. And I have to agree, not just because of the customary 'big company bad' stance I tend to take, but because it truly is utterly ridiculous for Monster to throw their weight around like this. Particularly towards a game so very tiny that they could have only come across it by browsing around the Steam store looking for a fight to pick. I'd hardly call that a threat to the recognisability of their brand, would you?

They don't just prey on little fish either, we've already known that Monster pushed themselves upon Ubisoft when those developers were in the process of publishing their game, Gods and Monsters, which quickly changed it's branding to the messy name 'Immortal: Feynx Rising' because there isn't a backbone in all of Ubisoft management combined. I can understand the sort of position that Glowstick must feel like they're in at this point, the latest morsels to be chewed up by the legal sharks held at the Monster offices- how can they possibly stand up to someone who made Ubisoft quake? Well, in perspective perhaps their case isn't so awful. Afterall, for all of their attempts to seize ubiquitous control over the name 'monster', the term still exists far and wide as far as I can remember. 

When is Monster going to knock on Pixar's door and demand royalties for Monsters Inc? Or are they afraid their slapsuit would get them crushed if they want against someone who actually had the means to defend themselves the letter of the law? When are they going to poke at Pokemon and try to get their blood money from- no! They already tried it? And the company still exists? Now that is a miracle; the Pokemon Company must have been feeling extremely generous that day. It turns out the Japanese Patent Office has it's head on far straighter than their American equivalents, because when Monster went after both Pokemon and Monster Hunter, the courts wouldn't even give the cretins the time of day. Which would be a moment of sombre reflection for a sensible mind, or a villain origin story for a true waste of breath.

For those picking up on the subtilties of my speech and wondering why it is I'm getting aggressive, you might be wondering if Dark Deception simply has me passionate. Whilst it is true that I feel slightly more attached to a game I actually remember from it's early demo stages and it's slow growth to where it sits today, my vitriol are for the lowest of the lows; frivolous lawsuit filers. Actual pathetic wretches of creation who exist only to desperately claw at the efforts of their hard working betters. I don't like Monster Energy, but I loathe the base beggarly bandits who weaponize antiquated law for their own enrichment. Honestly, the good ending here would be the absolute gutting of their entire brand protection team for being the actual scum of the earth. Do the world a favour for once, why don't you?