January 12, 2024
SINGAPORE – American energy drinks manufacturer Monster Energy Company (MEC) failed in its attempt to prevent South Korea’s YG Entertainment from registering the trademarks BabyMonster and BabyMonsters for its new K-pop girl group BabyMonster in Singapore, in a trademark lawsuit filed in Singapore court.
According to court documents, intellectual property adjudicator Ravindran Muthucumarasamy on Dec 29, 2023, turned down MEC’s objections upon examination of the company’s grounds of oppositions, noting in the ground of decisions that “having analysed the competing marks conceptually, visually and aurally”, he found BabyMonster’s to be more dissimilar than similar to Monster Energy’s.
YG, the record label and talent agency which manages BabyMonster, applied to protect in Singapore the trademark BabyMonster on May 22, 2020, and the trademark BabyMonsters on April 6, 2021.
The group debuted as six members – Ruka, Pharita, Asa, Rami, Rora and Chiquita – on Nov 27, 2023, with the single Batter Up. They are set to release their new song, Stuck In The Middle, on Feb 1.
MEC is a global leader in the energy drinks industry and owns at least 33 registered trademarks in Singapore, with many of them including the word “monster”. It has been selling its energy drinks in Singapore since October 2012.
Mr Muthucumarasamy, who awarded costs of more than $17,400 to YG, also noted that MEC has filed 52 notices of opposition with the Registrar of Trade Marks since 2012. MEC appealed to the High Court in three cases but the appeals were dismissed. Four other cases are still pending.
MEC had in December 2023 also failed in its attempt to block a trademark application by Gentle Monster, the South Korean luxury eyewear brand with two stores in Singapore.