Korean drink maker wins Monster trademark dispute case
Korea’s Supreme Court ruled that J-Bio’s claw-mark packaging is distinct enough from Monster Energy’s logo to avoid consumer confusion.
U.S. energy drink Monster Energy, left, and Korea's J-bio's energy drink Jambaekee
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A Korean sports drink maker has won a final Supreme Court ruling in a trademark dispute with U.S. energy drink giant Monster Energy, after the court found the two products' designs differ enough that consumers would not confuse their origins, according to legal officials on Tuesday.
J-Bio, a company that manufactures and sells drinks marketed to improve exercise performance, filed a petition with the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board in December 2020, seeking confirmation that its packaging of energy drink Jambaekee, which included a symbol that depicted a claw mark, did not fall within the scope of Monster Energy's registered trademark.
The board rejected the petition in August 2022, finding that the design on J-Bio's product was similar to Monster Energy's logo.
J-Bio then filed suit with the Intellectual Property Court that September seeking to overturn the board's decision.
Monster Energy argued that both products used claw-mark motifs and shared a similar overall impression, raising the risk of consumer confusion.
The court ruled in J-Bio's favor, finding that the two logos looked different, were described differently, and brought different associations to mind — enough that consumers were unlikely to confuse one brand for the other.
The court, more specifically, said that Monster Energy's logo is widely recognized as forming the lowercase alphabet "m" styled to resemble a monster's claw marks. J-Bio's design, by contrast, uses three diagonal upward-slanting lines that are unlikely to be perceived as forming the letter "m."
The court also found differences in the lettering design. Monster Energy uses a rough, jagged typeface, while J-Bio uses a relatively simple sans-serif font, giving the two an overall different impression.
The Supreme Court on June 5 upheld those findings.
The top court found that Monster Energy's logo naturally evokes the lowercase letter "m," while J-Bio's design is more likely to be perceived simply as a "scratch mark," creating a conceptual difference between the two.
"J-Bio's beverage packaging is not similar to Monster Energy's registered trademark and therefore does not fall within the scope of its trademark rights," it said.
BY JEONG JAE-HONG [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
