CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA VICTORY is OURS!!

Rock Art Brewery is allowed to continue brewing and selling THE VERMONSTER as we have since day one in 2006! 

I thank all of you for your efforts; this victory is because we all worked together on a common goal.  Our voice spoke as one to the Corporate Giant, and they listened, and then they spoke as I had asked from day one.

I will break this statement down into three parts so you will have an outline of the intent of this statement.

A) Thank you America! This is the world I want to live in!

B) Power of the tools used and the inherent ease of them.

C) The future, what do we want to do with this current tool that has been formed.

Thank You America!

              I can’t tell you what this means to me, my family and the folks that we work with at Rock Art Brewery.  Every voice has contributed to the success of this media campaign.  You all should take great pride in what has been accomplished, the ease of it and the speed at which the tide was turned.

It began on September 14^th, 2009 a day that will go down in history as to the POWER OF THE PEOPLE when they speak in a unified voice. I read the cease and desist letter and in disbelief I contacted legal advice, all saying no issues here but you will lose by default. The day will come as this is dragged out in the courts that you will have no more money to defend your legally used name.

            That was a sad view of reality that was presented to me; you all saw the video from http://greenriverpictures.com Yes, a plug for them as they believe in this issue so much as you all do, that they produced the video for free to help me with my story, and we were told by a billion dollar company that they produced a very professional video.  Why would they do this for free?  They are a small start up company and see that this injustice could one day happen to them as it is happing to small businesses everywhere right now.  This goal was accomplished with going to court, without fans donating money, although the offers were sincere and helped to confirm that I was correct in my pursuit of justice.  This was accomplished mostly thru speech, and the conscious efforts of thousands of Americans spreading the word and contacting the corporation.

            Once America spoke together in the language of USA dollars, a representative of the corporation was willing to speak to me in my language of the English language.  A courtesy that I had asked for since day one, Thank You America you helped to win this one together.

Power of the tools used and the ease of which they can be used:

            This will be a narrated time line of the events that happened and the speed at which our internet world lives in.  This was accomplished by Americans communicating and working together and using the POWER of SPEECH.  This speech was harnessed thru traditional media as well as the  new social media such as Twitter, FaceBook, Blog sites, e-mail lists and web sites to name a few.  These tools are incredibly POWERFULL and move at blinding speed.  Tools that can help give a small guy a chance on  the playing field maybe as golf has a handicap for players,  now small business and America has a way to combat a wealthy corporation in America.  It’s the same right we have had from our forefathers, free speech.  It has been adjusted to meet the new demands of today’s world.

             As a community we came together, unified our voice and spoke the language that Corporate America speaks, USA dollars.  I tried to talk since day one with the corporation but they were not speaking my language, common English language that we speak everyday.  So I spoke this language with my fans at the brewery, which spread to the Stowe Reporter picking up the story, to Seven Days bringing more statewide coverage.  We then sent out an e-mail to fans of Rock Art Brewery telling them the story on Oct .8^th at 4 pm..  That night Beverage Warehouse in Winooski pulled all of the company’s products off the shelf.  Now we were speaking the language of Corporate America. Other stores such as Pearl Street Beverage in Burlington and Healthy Living also joined the language that was being spoken.  Oct. 9^th Local TV news WCAX picked up the story and ran the late news as well as the news the following day.  Now the language was picking up steam.  Fans, Lukas Payette a UVM student, started a Face Book page soon to be joined by Jeff Baker of Beverage Warehouse “Vermonters and Craft Beer Drinkers against Monster” They were spreading the word to e-mail lists and social media friends they had.  Those folks would in turn spread it on to their contacts as this began to snowball.  Fans now had a central place to log into and get instant reports of the progress being made in the social media campaign.  Tweeters began a string of tweets to follow #Isupportrockart  and #boycottmonster were two of many that began to spread the message of common English language and the language of Corporate America, USA dollars. 

            Steam was rolling; on Monday the 12^th John Curran of the Associated Press came and interviewed me about this issue of trademark infringement.  That story with a photo of the two products and a spread of THE VERMONSTER and I ran at 5pm to 275 AP news outlets across this great nation of ours.  This was now nation wide only 12 days from the first printed report by the Stowe Reporter Oct. 1^st   News Giants such as The Boston Globe, The New York Times and others were running the article.

Soon VPR was interviewing, New England Cable News Network was in Morrisville running a story.  Calls were coming in from all over; a talk show on Texas radio ran coverage of an interview with me.  Radio from New Mexico and others were calling.

Oct. 14^th Green River Pictures uploads the “You Tube” video and the social media of facebook and twitter pick this up and spread it across the country instantly.  That is POWER to the PEOPLE, which may have been the pivotal point in all of this, the straw that broke the camels back as some say.  The next morning Oct. 15^th at 8am I received a call from a Hansen’s Beverage stock investor.

            Yes, the investors were calling; America was now speaking the language of Corporate America loud and clear.  I asked to speak with Rodney Sacks CEO of Hansen’s Beverage, and Guess what, Rodney and I spoke on the phone that day and legal language was being written to give both parties what they wanted.  Rodney and I spoke again on Friday the 16^th and fine tuned the language agreeable to both of us.  Monday Senator Bernie Sanders called me and also issued a letter to Hansen’s office.  Tuesday the 20^th two tiny words were found by Hansen’s lawyers that did not affect the contract from my point of view, but the two words were important to them so we amended the contract.  Wed. the 21^st VICTORY!!!  We had a signed contract that was more or less what I had offered on September 28^th.  They built in language to protect the needs of Hansen in current markets as well as future markets.  I had all I wanted from day one was the ability to continue my brewing of THE VERMONSTER my celebratory beer of 2006, 10 successful years in the brewing business.  THANK YOU AMERICA YOU SAVED THE VERMONSTER FROM CERTAIN DEATH!  21 days of traditional media combined with 13 days of social media, that’s it folks, change in 21 days once the language of Corporate America is spoken.

The future, what do we want to do with the current tool that has been formed?

            The facebook page” Vermonters and Craft beer Drinkers against Monster “has over 16,000 fans as of today only 13 days since it began.  Americans as well as supporters from England, Denmark, India, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Canada and more have been involved. Watching this and commenting on the issue, passing to their friends as well.  I was told around the 15^th of Oct. that twitter had 1,600,000 tweets in reference to this subject; I wonder what the number is today?  Can anyone e-mail that to me so I can update this document?

            America and supporters from around the world have built a tool in 13 days that can turn Corporate America and guide them back on track.  It must be pointed out though that trademark law, some would argue, requires action from corporations to protect their rights and hard work building a brand.  Everyone needs to be protected; we just can’t have the court system bogged down with expensive litigation.  Litigation that will end with the small guy running out of money to fight and then loose by default.  That is not right, just or fair, but that is the system that is in place.  I have heard countless stories in this 21 day campaign of financial distress for the small business that runs out of money and has to give up his or her rights to what they have worked hard to build in their life. 

            Do we want to keep this social media tool that has been created in 13 days alive and continue to broaden it and sharpen its focus?  How do we do that ? how do we preserve it? Many questions about what can be done many answers are needed by all.  Please communicate as we have been for such a short time. Until we as Americans have some reform of the trademark system, we will continue to be brought unwillingly down this path of no return in the court system where court time and resources are tied up continually until the inevitable outcome happens, the small guy looses all that he has built in his life. 

            Let’s communicate about this great event; I am still trying to think of how this can benefit the next person.  I would ask that all the citizens, professors, businessman, lawyers and representatives that have called on this situation to reflect and think about the future and what we can do next so this movement can be used as a catalyst to affect real change in our world today.

            We need change, our small businesses need our help, they need reform and our nation’s leaders should address these needs when the pressing needs of today’s world subside a bit.  I ask that they help the next small business that doesn’t have all the cards lined up like we found, loyal fans, internet savvy supporters, a popular or sexy  product, an easy to identify visual argument with the two products side by side, and so on.  We or I ask them to write legislation that will protect both sides of American business.  The corporate world and the small family business down the main street of America.

  We can change anything when we work together, that is true democracy in action, no interference from lobbyists, no unseen agendas holding up democracy, no deals being made to anyone’s benefit, just pure democracy in its finest.

This is a great victory for the citizens of this country as our world gets more and more complicated, and some may feel powerless.  Remember this Victorious day of Oct. 22^nd 2009.  A day that proved citizens can and still do run this country in organic democracy.  Your VOICE is your POWER and it will be heard.

POWER to the PEOPLE

POWER belongs to the PEOPLE

Thank You very much Vermont, America and followers around the globe.  Oct. 22^nd the day of true change.

Sincerely,

Matt Nadeau