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Monster Cable at it again...whoops.

Sheep

Sheep

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Not only are their overpriced cables indistinguishable from coat hangers, but Monster Cable picked on the wrong little guy this time. They sent a cease and desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable with apparently no legal basis at all, hoping to score a quick victory and/or wipe out a competitor who offers better product at better values. The catch? They didn't realize that the president of BJC is a lawyer who immediately saw through their bullshit. :guffaw:

The letter itself is worth a read, if only to see how many different ways Denke slices through Monster's BS.

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

Summary courtesy of Slashdot:

Dear Monster Lawyers,

The mention of similarity between my company and yours makes me throwup in my mouth a little. Your threats are empty and vague. You provided no details to your patent hissyfit.

If you're actually attempting to prove you own a patent on the RCA connector, then fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

Sincerely,
Kurt Denke
Click to expand...
Kurt Denke is my new hero.
 
Yet another example of a company using intellectual property and patent laws as a greedy attempt to make excessive profit and bury competitors.

This is totally in violation of the SPIRIT of these laws, they are designed to protect and encourage innovation, not to be used - as they are by the music industry and monster in this case - to avoid the growth of smaller businesses into effective competitors.

In this case the person in receipt of this letter obviously has monster's number - but it makes you wonder if other small cable manufacturers lost their nerve and maybe financial backing as a result of this nasty, mean-spirited and anti-competitive behaviour.
 
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.
Click to expand...

:lol:
 
Good... I hope Monster goes under... We charge WAAAAY to much for them... Who the hell "Needs" a $130 cable to a $1000 TV
 
actually, should skip BOTH companies and buy from Monoprice.com. Fantastic quality, and the prices are cheap as well. I wired my entire home theater setup with $80 worth of cables, and it involved 3 30' HDMI, 2 30' Component, a 30' TOSlink audio cable, etc.

Walk into BestBuy and ask for a 30' HDMI Monster cable, and watch the salesman's eyes light up as he directs you to a $500 cable...

Edit: Amazon is selling it for about $275. Got it from Monoprice for $25, and that was a heavier-gauge wire for in-wall installation.
 
Monster cables suck. I wired my home theater with them and I used a Monster power filter/surge protector. The big screen kept shutting off and the speakers kept popping. Long story short - power filter out, cables out replaced with cables from Blue Jeans Cable which I found at an AV website. Currently, no problems what so ever.

I will never buy another overpriced, poor quality Monster product.
 
USS KG5 said:
Yet another example of a company using intellectual property and patent laws as a greedy attempt to make excessive profit and bury competitors.
Click to expand...

There's another good example happening right now. There is a communication satellite who failed to reach its planned orbit. A possible maneuver to correct this cannot be carried out because it is patented, and thus the $150 million satellite will be written off.
 
That is one of the most brilliant IP responses I've ever seen, and I worked in IP law for almost a decade.
 
saturn0660 said:
Good... I hope Monster goes under... We charge WAAAAY to much for them... Who the hell "Needs" a $130 cable to a $1000 TV
Click to expand...

I doubt they're going to go under as a result of this (or the hordes of people who fall for their ads and think they need a $300 uber-shielded against thermal radiation and nanotechnology HDMI cable with water cooling), but I would be VERY surprised if Monster's lawyers were dumb enough to pursue this.

Now that it's posted on the web, it will likely deter Monster from trying to pull this again with other companies. Basically Monster just shot themselves in the foot trying to wipe out a tiny competitor. Good work!
 
BCI said:
USS KG5 said:
Yet another example of a company using intellectual property and patent laws as a greedy attempt to make excessive profit and bury competitors.
Click to expand...

There's another good example happening right now. There is a communication satellite who failed to reach its planned orbit. A possible maneuver to correct this cannot be carried out because it is patented, and thus the $150 million satellite will be written off.
Click to expand...

:lol:

Don't know if you're serious or not but I don't see how you can paten a maneuver. They don't for ground or air vehicles so why would they do it for space vehicles?
 
Hitman said:
fuck you and the horse you rode in on
Click to expand...
Sometimes I love lawyers... :lol:
Click to expand...

That was from the Slashdot Cliff's Notes for the three page letter; it wasn't actually in BJC's response. :lol:

The actual response is so much better because Denke goes to town on them in ways I couldn't even imagine.
 
romulus said:
BCI said:
USS KG5 said:
Yet another example of a company using intellectual property and patent laws as a greedy attempt to make excessive profit and bury competitors.
Click to expand...

There's another good example happening right now. There is a communication satellite who failed to reach its planned orbit. A possible maneuver to correct this cannot be carried out because it is patented, and thus the $150 million satellite will be written off.
Click to expand...

:lol:

Don't know if you're serious or not but I don't see how you can paten a maneuver. They don't for ground or air vehicles so why would they do it for space vehicles?
Click to expand...

I think that is kinda what BCI is getting at - frivolous patents are being enacted now, and VERY commonly in software for example, not as a way of protecting genuine intellectual property rights but just for starting off greedy legislation to help bury competitors.

There is no advantage for example in wrecking someone else's $150 million satellite, it will have a negative effect on thousands of people for no gain to you except kicking your competitor in the crotch. More importantly it is NOT in the SPIRIT of the law, put simply patent law was not meant for what it is commonly used for.

As we move into the information age, where abstract lists of 1's and 0's will hold more value than physical product, it is increasingly important to draw lines in the sand and set precedents which will not allow big corporations to dominate the new age, totally stifling creativity and innovation for the sake of a quick buck.

The grab for patents in software was really rather sickening.
 
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