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Monster Energy Co v. Sport Drink: Cease and Desist!
| The Most Gaped Man | 08/18/26 |
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Date: August 18th, 2026 9:30 PM Author: The Most Gaped Man We regret to inform our beloved Sport Drinkers that Sport Drink LLC has once again attracted the attention of a multinational beverage corporation and its team of high-powered attorneys.
This time, it’s Monster Energy Co.
Monster has taken issue with our BEHOLD A PALE WHITE MONSTER Sport Energy—an obvious homage to the ubiquitous White Monster.
Apparently, Monster did not appreciate the homage.
On August 13, we received a formal cease-and-desist letter accusing Sport Drink of trademark infringement and attempting to confuse consumers into believing our product was affiliated with, sponsored by, or approved by Monster Energy.
It wasn’t.
The product is already sold out. There is no inventory remaining, it has been removed from our website, and we have informed Monster that we will not use the BEHOLD A PALE WHITE MONSTER name again.
You might think that would be the end of it.
It is not.
Among Monster’s demands:
1. Pay Monster’s attorneys’ fees for coming after us. No.
2. Sign a declaration confirming our compliance with their demands. Also no. Sport Drink formally responded with no admission of infringement, wrongdoing, liability, damages, willfulness, or any of Monster’s other allegations. We also declined their demand that we pay their attorneys’ fees.
Trademark law exists for a perfectly reasonable purpose: protecting consumers from deception and businesses from having their names and goodwill unfairly taken. It also leaves room for parody, commentary, and cultural references where consumers aren’t being misled about who made or sponsored something.
That distinction matters here.
We never used Monster Energy’s claw logo. We never called our product “White Monster.” We intentionally changed the name, branding, artwork, and presentation to distinguish it from Monster’s product.
BEHOLD A PALE WHITE MONSTER was exactly what it appeared to be: a tongue-in-cheek Sport Drink homage to the enormous online meme culture surrounding White Monster—not an attempt to convince anyone Monster Energy made, sponsored, or approved it.
Somewhere along the way, the principles behind trademark protection seem to have been turned on their head.
Today, multinational corporations with enormous legal budgets can invoke those laws against tiny independent companies—and, in our case, demand that the little company pay the multinational corporation’s lawyers for the privilege of coming after them.
Laughable!
Monster Energy is one of the largest beverage companies in the world. Worth around 90 billion dollars!
Sport Drink is an independent electrolyte company built by a tiny team. Worth around 90 billion dollars! (Rough estimate)
We don’t have stadium sponsorships, billions of cans in circulation, or an army of corporate attorneys.
We have Sport Drinkers.
So if you’ve ever wanted to support the little independent company that gigantic beverage companies apparently cannot stop reading about, now would be an excellent time to buy some Sport Drink.
SPORT DRINK FOREVER
https://x.com/sportdrink/status/2089474663898362334
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