Monster Energy has even gone after Pokemon and Monster Hunter for daring to use the word 'monster'

gamesradar.com:

A few days ago, Monster Energy started beef with yet another indie developer because it was using the exceedingly common word 'monster' in the name of its game, Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals. This wasn't the company's first trademark dispute, but it put Monster Energy back in the spotlight long enough for some folks to dig up old trademark objections filed against Monster Hunter and even Pokemon – that is, Pocket Monster – in Japan.

These records surfaced via Japanese outlet Automaton (opens in new tab), which (per Google Translate) cites "information provided by readers and our investigation." It links to J-PlatPat (opens in new tab), a digital library of trademarks, patents, and other similar files. It's a Japanese website, but I was able to wrangle a filtered search for Monster Energy's katakana spelling, and according to these records, the company has indeed filed over 130 trademark objections against a smattering of companies.  

Monster Energy, which seems convinced it owns the word 'monster,' is infamously trademark-happy, but there's a bit of a gap between picking on random indies and arguing that Monster Hunter and Pokemon are a threat to your brand. And yes, Pokemon does indeed predate Monster Energy – which didn't really start operating in Japan through Asahi Soft Drinks until 2012, which was also long after Monster Hunter was established. 

After its latest filing, I even joked about why Monster Energy hadn't gone after Capcom, but it turns out that in 2016, the company did sting Monster Hunter Cross (opens in new tab), the Japanese version of Monster Hunter Generations, on the grounds that it's similar to the Monster brand. I'm going off Google Translate here, but the company straight-up argues that it