Our Story

We are just two dads from a small village in Buckinghamshire, England. We founded Monsta Pizza after becoming frustrated with the lack of interesting restaurant experiences available to our children.  Monsta Pizza is a brand based around our monster-shaped oven, a character we designed to appeal to families and to tell our story. We exist to inspire children, to educate them about good food and to provide a memorable eatery experience for families. One that involves more than a colour-in menu, a pack of crayons and some (questionable) chicken nuggets.  

Monster Energy are trying to stop us having any ownership of our name and forcing us to cease using it and our logo, by taking us through expensive legal proceedings which have sunk many a small business before us.

We need your help to stand up to the giant US company Monster Energy Drinks... again. Please contribute what you can and most importantly share this page with your friends, family and on social media.

Our Tiresome Challenge

The case started in May 2017 and eventually went to tribunal in August 2018 (That's us in the pic below outside the tribunal).  We won the case with the UK Intellectual Property Office ruling in our favour against all of their arguments, cue lots of fist bump emojis.  However, in October we learned that Monster Energy had filed an appeal against the decision and it has now been referred to the UK Government Legal Department, who have called a second hearing on the 8th January 2019, cue sad face emojis.  The result of this hearing will be final, they will not have the option to appeal again and this will (fingers crossed) be the end of it and the start of us. 

This company is renowned amongst the legal world for doing this and have made many small businesses go under. They are currently the worlds ‘No.1 Trademark Bully' topping the list on www.trademarkia.com.

So far this has cost us over £10,000 which is a huge cost for a tiny business in its first year of trading.  To be honest, we've run out of money, and no matter how much pizza we make we can't make enough to pay for the lawyers!  We still have an outstanding legal bill for £3,375 which will increase by around another £1,500 as we work towards the next hearing.  Too much for us to survive.  Even if we win, the cost awards in trademark disputes are only designed to be a contribution.  The total costs awarded in the first hearing were only 20% of our actual costs.

Our Big Goal

We need to raise £3000 in thirty days to to get anything at all.  If we don't, no contributions will be collected and this campaign will be closed down. 

In order to pay the rest of our outstanding legal bills, fund the last stand in this battle and cover upcoming bills and company finance arrangements we have had to take out as a result of this legal case, we ideally need to raise a total of £11,600. 

Put simply, your help will enable us to put this all behind us once and for all, continue trading and work towards our goal of creating a fun, wholesome alternative for bored, hungry families up and down the land.

So, what next?

PLEASE GIVE WHAT YOU CAN AND SHARE THIS PAGE NOW  

The proceeds will be paid by Crowd Justice directly to our legal representatives Downing IP Limited and credited off our invoice.  

Should there be a surplus, including any costs awarded by the court, this will be firstly refunded pro-rata to anyone that has contributed over £1,000 and any remaining funds will be used by Crowd Justice to help other companies in our position, either via distribution to similar fundraising campaigns on their platform or as a donation to the Access to Justice Foundation (Charity registration number: 1126147)

There is no way for us to profit from this campaign, other than to get the chance to keep making lots of lovely pizza.

Many thanks in advance,

Monsta Pizza.