Monster Mini Golf need your help fighting Monster Cable. [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

PDA

View Full Version : Monster Mini Golf need your help fighting Monster Cable.



PDN
12-02-2008, 02:03 PM
Markw:

Wow, I had no idea about this, none. I just researched this a bit on-line and found out more plus checked your link. This is preposterous. These people are lawsuit happy and seem to have nothing better to do. They must be paranoid. The word monster is used in so many business and brand names. They don't own the word. I agree with you. Leave the small business world alone. It's tough enough to run a small business and now have to defend yourself to the likes of this company. This is like saying the first company to use the word "pinnacle" or the word "giant" own them. Our federal courts should throw these lawsuits out the window and instead work on cases far more important to the good of America. Unbelievable.

markw
12-02-2008, 06:05 PM
I have no dog in this fight, but I'm sure sick of these guys stomping on little companies. Noel Lee has so much money that many small companies are forced to cave in because they can't afford the needed legal services. He literally litigates them to death.

If you want to help one of them take a stand, here's your chance.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=250335844365

Personally, I think it would be fitting to make this a sticky for a while.

blackraven
12-02-2008, 07:15 PM
I think we should all email the A$$ and tell him that we will discourage any one from buying his junk!

Woochifer
12-02-2008, 07:21 PM
Someone should put them in touch with Blue Jeans Cable. They got a threatening letter from Monster Cable claiming that Blue Jeans Cable infringed on Monster's cable design. Well, it just so happens that the founder of Blue Jeans Cable was a trial lawyer with 19 years of experience litigating federal cases.

He took Monster Cable to the woodshed with a brilliantly crafted response that hit on the appropriate legal points while injecting an appropriately dismissive and sarcastic tone. He not only picked apart all of Monster's claims, but also left open the door to having all of Monster Cable's purported patent claims challenged if they chose to litigate the case any further.

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blue-jeans-strikes-back


Dear Monster Lawyers,

Let me begin by stating, without equivocation, that I have no interest whatsoever in infringing upon any intellectual property belonging to Monster Cable. Indeed, the less my customers think my products resemble Monster's, in form or in function, the better.


Read the patents narrowly, and Monster loses; read them broadly, and Monster loses. You are welcome to point out any error in my reasoning; but I have to say that I will be unreservedly surprised if you are successful in doing so.


Further, if any of these patents or trademarks has been licensed to any entity, please provide me with copies of the licensing agreements. I assume that Monster Cable International, Ltd., in Bermuda, listed on these patents, is an IP holding company and that Monster Cable's principal US entity pays licensing fees to the Bermuda corporation in order to shift income out of the United States and thereby avoid paying United States federal income tax on those portions of its income; my request for these licensing agreements is specifically intended to include any licensing agreements, including those with closely related or sham entities, within or without the Monster Cable "family," and without regard to whether those licensing agreements are sham transactions for tax shelter purposes only or whether they are bona fide arm's-length transactions.


I say this because my observation has been that Monster Cable typically operates in a hit-and-run fashion. Your client threatens litigation, expecting the victim to panic and plead for mercy; and what follows is a quickie negotiation session that ends with payment and a licensing agreement. Your client then uses this collection of licensing agreements to convince others under similar threat to accede to its demands. Let me be clear about this: there are only two ways for you to get anything out of me. You will either need to (1) convince me that I have infringed, or (2) obtain a final judgment to that effect from a court of competent jurisdiction. It may be that my inability to see the pragmatic value of settling frivolous claims is a deep character flaw, and I am sure a few of the insurance carriers for whom I have done work have seen it that way; but it is how I have done business for the last quarter-century and you are not going to change my mind. If you sue me, the case will go to judgment, and I will hold the court's attention upon the merits of your claims--or, to speak more precisely, the absence of merit from your claims--from start to finish. Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it.

Needless to say, Blue Jeans Cable has not heard back from Monster Cable's lawyers.

2chAlex
12-02-2008, 09:07 PM
Wow what a bunch of you know what by Monster Cable. Only have two of their items and they are history. Blue Jean has a page all about their response to Monster Cable, great read.

markw
12-03-2008, 04:08 AM
Someone should put them in touch with Blue Jeans Cable. They got a threatening letter from Monster Cable claiming that Blue Jeans Cable infringed on Monster's cable design. Well, it just so happens that the founder of Blue Jeans Cable was a trial lawyer with 19 years of experience litigating federal cases.

He took Monster Cable to the woodshed with a brilliantly crafted response that hit on the appropriate legal points while injecting an appropriately dismissive and sarcastic tone. He not only picked apart all of Monster's claims, but also left open the door to having all of Monster Cable's purported patent claims challenged if they chose to litigate the case any further.

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blue-jeans-strikes-back









Needless to say, Blue Jeans Cable has not heard back from Monster Cable's lawyers.Kurt Denke has been in touch wit hthem but since he's out of practive , on a professional level, all he could do was to offer advice.

This whole bruhaha has been an ongoing issue at Audioholics.com. Links can be porovided but I don't really like to cross-post links to other sites. I can if requested.

markw
12-03-2008, 06:47 PM
It seems the original listing violated Ebay's terms of service by not offering a product for sale.

So, who wants to buy a coupon for Monster Mini Golf? It'll make a great souvenir (sp?) of your participation in the good fight.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250336911645&category=1469&_trksid=p2773.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSI%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D 40%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D54

Woochifer
12-17-2008, 05:54 PM
A bit late in the game, but I found out that indeed Blue Jeans Cable really came up to bat for Monster Mini Golf. They have a link on their website where they will match any donations that Blue Jeans Cable customers make to Monster Mini Golf's legal fund, and they had a set of cables on their site where they were donating 10% of the proceeds to Monster Mini Golf. Glad that I made my first HDMI cable purchase through them a few weeks ago.

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blue-jeans

kexodusc
12-18-2008, 06:40 AM
This is great stuff...I love seeing honest businesses band together to tackle corporate douchebaggery....err...I mean debauchery.

filecat13
12-23-2008, 08:21 PM
Glad to see it.

Hey, Monster: :dita: