My monster has more money than your monsters

Wow! What a few days! On Friday I receive an email from the Intellectual Property Office about my recent trademark application notifying me of an 'intention of threatened opposition' from Monster Energy Company based in the United States! Now, I'm no technical bod but my limited understanding of trademarks is that you can't have jurisdiction on a word unless there is evidence that basically I'm working in the same market as them doing the same sort of stuff and maybe my logo is a rip off of their or my products could be mistaken for theirs.

Ok, for one, they are in the beverages market. I make children's bedding and nightwear and occasionally pyjamas bottoms for mummy's too.  Call me stupid but in this situation, I can't really think that any of my products could ever be mistaken for their products. Ever. Like, not even in the slightest.

On another note, our logos are completely different. My logo (not my already tradmarked monster image) is totally aimed at children in a friendly way. Their logo is an 'M' slashed through like it was done by a monster. Again, you couldn't ever mistake one for the other.

It's going to be an interesting time nonetheless.  I'm slap bang in the middle of a house move, it's end of term for my day job as a teacher and my hectic boys are running around 13 hours a day!  On the plus side, I have been doing some research and found out that Rehab London also faced the same problems with Monster Energy Company and so I plan to have a chat with Lisa Hilton who, with Hackett and Tiger, successfully managed to run the #fightthemonster campaign to highlight the unnecessary bullying tactics that Monster Energy Company like to operate to and managed to get them to drop their lawsuit.

Fingers crossed for good news, but something tells me this is not going to be an easy ride!

(The Great British) Sewing Bee good for you!

Well, I'm a true believer of being in the right place at the right time and it sure is true!

I've offered to help out at Totton College's Textile class as a volunteer and from there have now agreed to set up a basic Introduction to Sewing class in October!  Then this evening May Martin from The Great British Sewing Bee popped along to visit the class and she's kindly given me her email address should I need to pick her brains. What a lovely lady! Really happy to first and foremost be a teacher and help her students, and clearly people she's just met. She told up all about what it was like filming The Great British Sewing Bee and working with Patrick and Claudia Winkleman and her story about how she got picked to be one of the judges.  She took time out to pose for photos and gave autographs for a donation of £2 towards a charity close to her heart, the Alzheimer's Society.  All in all a really useful meeting and I hope she doesn't mind when I take her up on the offer of picking her brains about sewing...

Mother's day's ideas

What better way to celebrate than to treat yourself! Check for Monsters is now offering mummy pj bottoms - and you can get a matching pj set for your little ones! Currently on offer for Mother's day, you can get mummy pj bottoms for just £20 (normally £25) when you order a matching set for your own little monster ;-)

Putting it all into action!

Well after my business masterclass last month I've already got my business email sorted and been thinking about taking my products to the bespoke level. I've been sourcing material and spending lots of pennies I don't have!! I've got lots and lots of ideas but know it's all going to take quite some time but I'm prepared for it and taking it all one step at a time. I'm working on an idea for mummy and little girl sets at the moment which I reckon will be a good seller!!

Watch this space for more news and developments but just be warned: it's not all going to happen at once! It's going to be a slow grower but it'll pay dividends in the end...you mark my words ;-)