Two “frustrated” dads who went head-to-head with a US energy drink giant in a “David and Goliath” battle to save their start-up pizza company have won.

Monsta Pizza, based in Wendover, was taken to court by Monster Energy after the conglomerate “aggressively” pursued the travelling pizzeria – which has been seen at a number of food and drinks markets and festivals around south Bucks, including Marlow and High Wycombe – for a year over the use of the word ‘monster’ in its name.

Co-founder Chris Dominey, known as Dom, said the expensive legal costs were threatening to sink their business.

But the pizzeria came out on top, with the UK Intellectual Property Office ruling that the drinks company had “failed” in its attempt to prevent Monsta Pizza from using the name.

Mr Dominey said: “It’s been a long and frustrating battle, which started in June 2017, when we applied to register our trademark, and finally ended in a tribunal hearing in London a few weeks ago and the decision last week.

“They objected to our use of the word ‘monsta’ on all possible grounds. We decided to fight it rather than give up and rebrand for two reasons; firstly, we really like our name – it perfectly encompasses what we do and our customers like it too.

“And secondly, we believed their objection was wrong and we weren’t prepared to walk away from all our hard work just because a bully didn’t like what we were doing.”

The pizzeria has been seen at a number of food and drinks markets and festivals around south Bucks, including Marlow and High Wycombe.

Mr Dominey added: “We’re so pleased that common sense prevailed and incredibly grateful for the support and encouragement we received from everybody who heard about it when we finally made public what was going on.

“Now that this is all over we’re roaring to go.”