Monster Cable threatens Blue Jeans Cable with ludicrous cease & desist letter
Blue Jeans Cable is the latest target in Monster Cable’s hostile legal strategy. But, this round may be more than Monster bargained for because Blue Jeans Cable is ready–almost eager–for a good legal battle.
Kurt Denke, the president at Blue Jeans Cable was a lawyer in one of his previous careers “with a focus upon federal litigation involving large damages and complex issues,” according to his response letter published on Audioholics.
. . .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’s encouraging to see a “small company” responding to unwarranted litigation strongly, and it’s obvious that Denke is confident he can defend his case.
Besides this case with Blue Jeans Cable, Monster Cable has targeted many others with its aggressive trademark protection, including (courtesy of Wikipedia):
- Monster Garage
- Monster Energy Drink
- MonsterHTPC
- Snow Monsters (a kid’s skiing group)
- MonsterVintage, small used clothing store
- Monsters, Inc., an animated feature film
- Monsters of the Midway, a nickname of the Chicago Bears football team
- Fenway Park’s Monster seats
- Monster.com employment website
Here is a side by side comparison that Engadget posted showing cables from Blue Jean Cable and Monster Cable.
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