Blue Jeans lays a smackdown on Monster Cable (1 Viewer)

[Michael_K_Sr]

After Monster Cable issued a C&D order to Blue Jeans Cable a few weeks ago against their Tartan cable line, today Blue Jeans' president struck back.

"... I do not compromise with bullies and I would rather spend fifty thousand dollars on defense than give you a dollar of unmerited settlement funds"

 

[mylan]

"Not only am I unintimadated by litagation, I sometimes rather miss it."
If only I could crush my enemies so utterly and completely as has Mr.Denke has done, well done sir! Sometimes the big dog bites off more than they can chew, I howled when I read the paragraph that begins "After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, I spent nineteen years in litagation practice...." priceless, simply priceless.

 

[Holadem]

While I am no so naive as to believe that that letter settled the matter, it was beautiful to read.

Still, I do find it interesting that sympathies seem to lie automatically with the perceived "little guy", regardless of the merits of Monster's complaints, which none of us are in a position to evaluate (a fact acknowledged in the stub in the link.)

What if Blue Jeans did infringe on Monster Cable's patents?

--
H

 

[BrianW]

I find myself more and more often reading legal documents, courtroom filings, and letters like this one just for fun. I'm following almost half a dozen civil litigation cases at the moment, and I almost wish I had gone into law instead of engineering.

Alas.

But, in all honesty, I know that I made the right career decision, and that letters of response like Mr. Denke's serve to instill a "Grass-Is-Greener" longing in me that is misplaced and ill-begotten. Law is very hard work, and heroic moments of this magnitude are few and far between. Nevertheless, I do not exaggerate when I say that Mr. Denke has made it on my list of heroes.

Though a very few people go into law in order to perpetrate scams, the vast majority, I believe, go into law in order to prevent the perpetration of scams. It always thrills my heart to see one of these idealists get an opportunity to strike a significant blow against bully litigants, especially in the patent arena.

Thanks for the link. That was a great read.

 

[Holadem]

Same here except: 1- it is of course possible to do both 2- I believe that the rigors of engineering actually help in legal education and practice 3- I am not following half a dozen litigation cases

--
H

 

[BrianW]

Simple. Then Monster will follow through, prevail, and likely put Mr. Denke out of business.

But I do know what you mean about how, in the absense of evidence or data, sympathies tend to go with the "little guy". I don't consider this a good thing, especially to the extent that the "little guy" intends to use said sympathy, instead of evidence, to influence a jury.

But that's what makes it exciting, isn't it? At this point, it's a poker game, and all the players have their best poker faces on. There won't be any cards on the table until discovery, and we won't see all the cards until the trial. Of course, if someone folds, we still won't see all the cards, but we'll definitely know who had the best hand.

 

[RobertR]

From what I know about the business practices of the respective companies, I find it very hard to believe that Blue Jeans Cable is infringing on any patents. Monster is a company engaged heavily in high end audio bullshit, which tells me that their patents are for things of dubious value, done mainly for the purpose of making marketing claims (as in "See? Our design is patented, so it's obviously really special, and will cause (insert any number of subjectivist audio terms eaten up by those who fall for such claims)!"). Blue Jeans doesn't participate in such nonsense, so it makes no sense why they would "infringe" by duplicating it. I wish them well.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Dang, I wish I were able to write a response to a potential plaintiff's claim that is so erudite and damning in its analysis of the plaintiff's claim!

This is going to make for very interesting reading going forward, if Monster's lawyers don't back off and continue.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Nice letter.

 

[ChristopherG]

If that were so, couldn't they simply have provided the smoking gun evidence, vis-a-vis their patent info, so as to make this clear cut? It will be interesting to see how this turns out in any case....

 

[DaveHo]

If I read that right, Monster's claim, in a nut shell, is that Blue Jeans is infringing on Monster's patents by using RCA style connectors on their cables. Seems pretty absured to me.

 

[Francois Caron]

He's gonna send the IRS after them! I love it!

Blue Jeans has great, reasonably priced cables and an excellent shipping policy to Canada (USPS at about cost). And their Web site is truly informative.

Kurt! ATTACK! *GROWL!*

 

[Ennsio]

Wow, that was an awesome response letter. Good to see someone standing up to the big companies that spend far too much of their time and effort on BS marketing than creating value in their audio products. Makes me want to order some cables from BJC just to support them in their fight against Monster.

Here's my favourite line from the letter:

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> If I read that right, Monster's claim, in a nut shell, is that Blue Jeans is infringing on Monster's patents by using RCA style connectors on their cables.

Yeah, how many companies use those connectors?

 

[Dave Poehlman]

"...the less my customers think my products resemble Monster's, in form or in function, the better."

Awesome!

 

[Joe D]

Thanks for the link, that article rules.

Shame on Monster.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

It's too bad the story didn't reference the patent at issue. Using the PTO's search engine on the assignee name "monster cable" retrieved 156 patents, about 40% utility and 60% design.

Edit: The linked original story referenced these design patents in the original complaint:


You can retrieve these for free in .pdf format using PAT2PDF - Free PDF copies of patents: Download and print! .

 

[ChristopherG]

So Monster's legal team did at least throw some "evidence" along with the C&D letter, that is a bit more tenable of a position than I had earlier thought. Whether or not there is merit is up to a court to decide. Personally, I will root for the little guy in this situation as I think Monster's products, while of reasonable quality, are ridiculously overpriced.

 

[Marc L]

I found this article a few minutes ago, interesting stuff! Time to go buy some new cables from Blue Jeans.

Interview with Kurt Denke, the man who shut "Monster Cable" up.

 

[RobertR]

Kurt's response was superbly worded, but I haven't seen confirmation that it "shut Monster Cable up". Where did that title come from?