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Have you heard what Monster Cable is doing? (1 Viewer)

Jeff Gatie

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At least the Red Sox are going after people who are in the same line of business in which they have their trademarks (sports apparel and sports memorabilia), which is more than we can say for Monster Cable. If companies start generically referring to their cables as "Monsters" and marketing them as such, I'll back Monster Cable 100% in their "zealousness" for trying to keep their trademark from becoming generic. This is all the website really pertained to and was the only point my feeble listening and/or reading skills were trying to convey thorough my equally slow mind and typing fingers.

Needless to say, I am truly honored by your (what I perceived to be, but I'm not sure it is) contrition.:D

Edit - I notice that the defendant in the Sox lawsuit was the D'Angleo family, specifically the owner's of "Twins Enterprises", the official vendor of Sox logo apparel. They are the only private entity to own exclusive rights to a MLB team logo besides the teams (and MLB) themselves. They got this right way back in the 40's, after Tom Yawkey signed it over to them thinking "who would ever want to buy a baseball jersey?". The rest is history. It is no wonder the Sox defended it so harshly.
 

John Garcia

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I'd have to say if a little research was done, I'm sure it would become apparent that Monster Cable is not the only company doing this sort of thing. I believe I read exactly the same thing regarding Bose having a ton of lawsuits over product name similarities, even against already existing products.
 

Kevin_F

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Dec 1, 2004
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I see some of you stating that you are going to boycott Monster and their cables. For a newbie like me that thinks cables starts and ends with Monster, can you direct me toward some other manufacturers that make a similar product at a more reasonable price?
 

Jeff Gatie

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Whoops!!! Can open...worms everywhere!!

Kevin_F, nothing starts the flames from heating up like a good "wire war". It usually divides into two camps, the scientists and the "golden ears". Essentially, the scientists say you should buy the cheapest wires you can find that are of proper gauge, solidly built, with good connectors. The "golden ears" think that some wires are better than others, even if they are well within the specs required and are equally well built. The scientists will recommend products like Radio Shack Gold, Accoustic Research and BetterCables; all low to moderately priced, well made cables. They will also recommend Home Depot 12 gauge speaker wire at $.30/ft., rather than something at $5/ft. The other side, well the skys the limit. For the "golden ears", if you have extremely expensive gear, you cannot spend enough on cables and wiring to wring the last micrometer of performance out of said gear. $2000-3000 for an interconnect cable and $100/ft. is not unheard of for high end cables and wires.

Both sides argue vehemently, with one coming down on the side of science and the other coming down on the side of "believe your ears, they know best" (paraphrasing, please no flames). Which one you believe can save you lots of money or make your system sound much better, regardless of cost. It's really up to you.

My personal feeling is to spend aprox. 10% of the cost of the system on cables/wires. I've done this by using Accoustic Research and Home Depot brands (I am, afterall, a scientist).
 

Gabriela Mendez

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Aug 7, 2004
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111
Guess who's next:



No Monster for me . Our house uses Bluejeans subwoofer cable, Home Depot 12 gauge speaker wire, Radioshack gold component cable, philips component cable from Walmart. Dayton RCA. Yep, no monstercable here. :D

Just remembered I had some xbox monster cable. Shame!
 

frank manrique

Supporting Actor
Joined
Sep 15, 1999
Messages
798
The only noteworthy thing about the Monster Cable company is that they're merely a monster crying baby enterprise and little else. There...I said it: MONSTER, so sue me. :rolleyes

Am tired of reading about Monster's seemingly never ending suing shenanigans, so I am boycotting their products; will never purchase anything they make, manufacture (yea, right :rolleyes:), or offer as "services" ever again... :thumbsdown:

-THTS
 

ScottCarr

Second Unit
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Jan 28, 2003
Messages
459
I have read the entire thread, as a consumer I am too scared to go to stores to buy cables for my stereo

If I go to the store will I find the Green Monster and the Cookie Monster sitting in the Monster Seats guarding the Monster Cables? Do these Monsters do the Monster Mash and park their vehicles in the Monster Garage? Do Monsters apply for these jobs on monster dot com for Monsters Inc?

So they don't build Monster Cables in the Monster Garage?

Where is Monsters Inc and do they have good benefits?

I listened to Monster Mash but could not find the reference to cables.

Not being a lawyer I simply do not see the relevance of this case other than strong arming.

Monster is not welcomed in my house or vehicles.

Someone should patent the term "HOME THEATER"
 

Kenneth Harden

Screenwriter
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May 13, 2002
Messages
1,365


Well, with this, they were suing for a LIKE PRODUCT.

If Monster Cable was suing a CABLE COMPANY that used Monster or the like in its name, advertising, etc. I would be OK with it. This was kinda the case with Micro$oft.

However, Monster is on a crusade to rape money out of everyone they can.

How many people will associate a JOB SITE with SPEAKER CABLE? Not enough for Monster to be able to do this.

Monster can kiss my butt.

Don't they charge you some money to get replacement products from a warranty claim, like $10 per cable?
 

Benihana

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Nov 14, 2003
Messages
190
these monster cable people make me laugh. I was talking to a monster cable rep at radioshack and I asked him, why is this cheap radioshack cable inferior to your monster cable? I told him almost 100% of the world can't tell a difference between this cable and that cable, and he said it depends on what type of system you use them with, he says you need to have a high end system to be able to tell a difference. I asked him what kind of high end system, and he said any of the BOSE systems. Can't wait for someone to pull down their pants and take a Monster sh*t from their Monster ass on these monster cable morons and expose what these people really are, SH*T!!!
 

EdNichols

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 15, 2003
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372
Lets trademark the word "cable" and sue Monster for using it. That makes just about as much sense as what they are doing.
 

Jeff Gatie

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Aug 19, 2002
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However, Microsoft is/was not suing Anderson Windows, JB Sash and Door and/or Joe Blow's Windows because they are calling their triple pane double insulated "hole in a house covering contraptions" a 'window'. Which is what monster is doing - taking a ubiquitous term used to mean 'gigantic' or 'a scary being', etc., and suing people who use that term. I guess next in line is Dr. Frankenstein and Stephen King. After all, they manufacture "Monsters" also.
 

Kenneth Harden

Screenwriter
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May 13, 2002
Messages
1,365


Exactly!

I don't mind companies trying to keep their COMPETITION from stepping on their toes, but Monster wants blood and they can kiss my monster butt :D
 

Rutgar

Second Unit
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Jan 17, 2004
Messages
495
Obviously, the people at Microsoft have enough sense to know, that only a total moron would get confused about software, and a piece of glass that fills a hole in a wall.
 

rob_kato

Auditioning
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Jun 4, 2004
Messages
3
The following are Ray Kimber's UNEDITED comments regarding Monster Cable:

Dear All, (Permission to copy and/or cross post this, without editing, is granted)

There have been some murmurs that my opposition and criticism of Monster Cable is self serving. I would like to respond and give a more complete reason and response for my opposition to Monster Cable

I didn't jump to any conclusions about Monster Cable's behavior toward Snow Monsters until after I had called and talked to both parties, and challenged them both. The result was that I looked at postings of "real" documents on the web that, in my opinion, leave Monster Cable trying to now float a public relations “cover story” that is increasingly difficult for anyone to swallow.

I wonder how many who are reading this will have seen the 1999 article from Forbes Magazine? (If not, send me your mailing address by private email and I will send you one, it is copyrighted, so it shouldn’t be PDF’d but I have some authorized reprints from Forbes) In it, Kimber Kable and Straight Wire were both splattered by the same paint as Monster Cable. While the article was from a few years ago, it is STILL being referenced by current postings and I recently had a reporter call me, out of the blue, regarding the re-naming of Candlestick Park, due to the linking of Kimber Kable and Monster Cable in the Forbes article.

Since my name and company and industry continue to be linked to Monster Cable I have an interest in what is being said, along with worry of how all AV cable companies might be tarnished by industry association with Monster Cable. The Snow Monsters issue came to my attention via someone who thought we and Monster Cable were the same thing! Until a few days ago I didn’t have ANY knowledge of the very existence of Monster Vintage, The Sesame Street Monster Workshop or Monster Away. Nor did it EVER cross my mind that Monster Garage, Monsters Inc, Monster.com or Monster Trucks had anything to do with each other OR with Monster Cable. Certainly I didn’t form negative opinions about any of the above entities by name association with each other, or mistake one for the other

There are many, no, make that VERY many things that Noel as a person and Monster Cable as a company have accomplished in a very positive way, but..., now I have both heartbreak and heartburn over what is happening, I don't understand, Noel's/Monster Cable’s tactics, it "looks" bad and I worry that folks will decide that the whole darn specialty cable business is the same. Monster Cable is, by my reckoning, larger than ALL of us competitors COMBINED! That gives Noel a "bully pulpit", but his apparent behavior as a bully is doing terrible harm to him, his company and my/our industry.

Monster Cable makes some great products, no question and no argument from me. But HOW they are selling them pisses me off, not because it cuts into Kimber Kable sales, it doesn't (explained below). It pisses me off because I think it is just flat wrong. One example: Using the driving of Noel's sports cars as an incentive to sell more Monster Cable. The result has been two-fold. More cable was sold. And! There were folks who likely had NEVER driven a high performance car that were turned loose in an unfamiliar car, on unfamiliar PUBLIC roads with a "just met" MC employee as co-pilot/chaperone. I hope/suppose that there were “ground rules”, but sheesh! what could anyone expect?, that these sales folks were motivated to sell more Monster Cable with the goal of driving a dream performance car like Aunt Mable drives her Buick? Uh huh?!? Well, the Forbes article talks about an incident that went wrong, very wrong. When does a sales incentive, by amount and extent, go from "compensating" to "corrupting"?

The reason that Monster Cable doesn't much compete with Kimber Kable is that we don't sell in the same stores, and wouldn't even try. The folks that go to Radio Shack (now selling Monster Cable, BTW) to buy a VCR don't need, and don't deserve to be pitched on, special wire of any kind. That customer’s needs and expectations are COMPLETELY met with ordinary products. If the compensation and pressure to sell that customer "special wires" is high enough then sales WILL certainly be made. But I won't pay that extent of incentive AND won't apply that kind of pressure to Kimber Kable dealers to make THAT kind of sale. I wouldn't be able to explain such sales to my mom and I wouldn't want such sales methods directed at my mom. Sometimes it is good to apply the “mommy test” to situations to see if it is OK.

My anger and opposition to Monster Cable has nuthin' to do with Monster Cable products and everything to do with how pissed I am at overselling and the corrupting influence of incentives and pressure that are WAY WAY WAY out of proportion. Not to mention the ridiculous trademark actions. You don’t see Mother’s Car Wax going after Mother Teresa, now do ya?

Most electronics consumers don't need fancy cables, mine or anyone else’s!!! It is only when the natural interest and knowledge of the consumer correlates with equipment that will compliment the fancy cable that such a sale should be considered. The rewards and pressure to sell Monster Cable are evidently so high as to override the good sense of the seller as to which customer REALLY should be EVER be pitched.

I have NEVER!!! bought a power protection bar, Monster Cable’s or otherwise to go with my consumer electronics hardware purchases. My knowledge of the usual good power line quality and that hardware (even the cheap stuff) is pretty resilient to a little power junk AND!

my knowledge that if I REALLY TRULY did need some protection that I couldn't buy it for $100.00

makes me NOT a target for such sales. I have the knowledge that if I'm buying a $199.00 VCR I won't gain (and shouldn't expect) any useful increase in performance from any power bar or fancy cables. Without that knowledge I don’t want to be a target, like an unaware fish, to be hooked with some bait.

I don't like the idea of having my family and friends sold something/anything because they didn't know enough to form a sensible purchase decision. I don't want any Kimber Kable dealer to make such a sale of my product. I would be kidding myself if I laid out huge incentives to sell Kimber Kable and then imagined that ONLY folks who understood and appreciated fancy cables would be sold Uh Huh ?!? Well, EVERY customer is someone’s friend or family, they deserve to be treated as such.

So, will a boycott of Monster Cable shift all those sales to Kimber Kable, nope, cuz, my mom wouldn't "get it" if I tried to explain why it should. What would/should happen is that just-as-good-for-the-application less expensive product, like Belkin, Panamax, WestPenn or Carol, will be sold instead, at a much lower price. AND by eliminating the high pressure and high rewards the sales will drop to levels that more closely match the needs and expectations of the customer. So a boycott of Monster Cable, in my opinion, won't and shouldn't shift “real” sales to me or any other fancy cable company. What it will do is STOP the over-selling of, albeit fine, products. Remove the artificial props of, what looks to me like, PAYOLA!, and the over-reaching sales will evaporate and not be “shifted” to me or anyone else.

If Monster Cable's tactics are as bad as they appear regarding Snow Monsters, Monster Vintage and Monster Away, then I think they should stop it now AND go back and un-do some stuff, give back previous arm-twisted trademarks and agreements, and make amends to all others that were beat up. (BTW, Monster Away was a water pistol to be sold to children so they could give a little Monster Away squirt under the bed before they went to sleep. Monster Cable opposed the trademark application?!? I looked at the list of actions in the Trademark office, seems to me like Monster Cable just flat wore them out of money and/or will and/or spirit)

Noel/Monster Cable seems not to have learned much from the damning 1998 Forbes article. It won't be enough for me to just have Monster Cable just say "sorry" to Snow Monsters, because I truly believe that they will just continue on their merry way and view an occasional "sorry" as a cost of business. I want to see a "righting" of past "wrongs" and a removal of either Monster Cable's will or means to mount future over-reaching sales tactics and over-reaching trademark tactics.

So, I am going to ask Monster Cable folks some questions. I have already sent Dave Tognotti (Monster Cable’s Attorney) an email on 12/28/2004, no answer yet. I have been, and am going to be further, alerting friends and family to the stopthemonster site. I will say something, and why, to folks in the stores that are selling Monster Cable.

I am super uncomfortable with taking a stand against Monster Cable, not my style, and it would be perfectly logical for someone to view my opposition as self serving. But I can’t stand by quietly any longer and still be able to explain to my mom why I didn’t speak up.

It sucks that good products need to boycotted in order to stop the overselling and to choke off the profits that finance attacks on Snow Monsters and such.

My bottom line and sincere opinion is; I want to see Monster Cable stop the hurtful damage they are doing, apologize and make amends, correct past similar situations and further; to pay some significant Penitence.

Kind regards,

Ray Kimber (Permission to copy and/or cross post this, without editing, is granted)
 

AaronMg

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Mar 20, 2002
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247
They must have reached some sort of agreement with Monster.com because there is a link to the monstercable site at the bottom of the page.
 

PeterK

Supporting Actor
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Jan 14, 2004
Messages
519
monster is trying to sue disney for monsters inc. ??? I don't know who they think they are, disney probably has 100x more money than monster will ever have. and could probably counter-sue monster's ass out of buisness if they wanted.
What idiots.
NO more monster products for me. :angry:
 

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