Local business being monstered by American corporation

A small Alstonville business selling fermented starter cultures has come under attack from a large American corporation that sells energy drinks.

Natalie Brookes established her business, Ferment Monster, last year, producing a range of fermented food and drink starter cultures.

Since starting, however, the American corporation, Monster Energy Corporation, have decided to oppose her use of the word ‘monster’ in her business name.

‘I have until 13 August to raise the funds to take this fight on,” Ms Brookes told Echonetdaily.

‘Being a small business, my production and financial resources are limited.

‘The opposition Monster Energy Corporation has made to my trade mark application, could spell the end of Ferment Monster.

‘I have little capacity to defend myself against the Monster Energy Corporation, who have unlimited financial resources and use this as a weapon to quash smaller businesses like mine.’

She has launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise the money to employ an attorney specialising in intellectual property rights, and has been quoted between $25,000 and $60,000.

‘For a word that can be found in every English dictionary, how can a single corporation have exclusive rights to the word monster,’ Ms Brookes said.

She also maintains her logo and business name are very different to the American drinks version.

‘I believe this is a cause worth fighting for. My logo uses a commonly available font type for the name of my business and a unique purposely-designed logo, that has no similarity to any of the monster energy corporation trademarks,’ she said.

Apart from having to fight for her business, Ms Brookes states that the products she sells could not be any different, producing and selling fermentation starter cultures as opposed to energy drinks.

She is asking anyone that can help to visit https://www.gofundme.com/fermentmonster and join her in the fight.