Tuominen said he would describe Owoc as “entertaining” but that his personality didn’t impact the jury’s deliberations much.
Bang and Owoc suffered several unfavorable rulings about admissible evidence both before and during the trial, which hamstrung their ability to counter the scientific results presented by Monster’s witnesses.
Unable to present a study Judge Bernal ruled inadmissible because it was brought forward far after a deadline, Bang was left in the position of having to criticize the Monster studies while also pulling out elements from them that could be seen as favorable to VPX.
The trial is part of an increasingly bitter series of legal disputes that have broken out in the past few years between Monster and VPX, another chapter of which opened in Florida last month when Vital filed a suit of its own against Monster, asserting Monster ignored reports of “hazardous” ingredients and engaged in “trademark bullying.”
VPX lost trade dress claims in 2021 following a trial against Monster over claims Monster copied Bang’s design with a “knockoff” version of Bang called Reign. In April, Monster and a small family-owned business called Orange Bang Inc. also scored a $175 million trademark win in arbitration against VPX which also requires Vital to pay $9.3 million in attorney fees.