Monster Cable learns nothing, sues Monster Transmission
By Nilay Patel 
posted Apr 9th 2009 1:51PM
posted Apr 9th 2009 1:51PM
Update: Monster Cable's sending out a statement saying "Monster does not have an issue with Monster Transmission" and that the "case was filed last year, before the Monster Mini Golf matter was settled" but it sounds to us like they're playing fast and loose with their timeline to distract people -- we just spoke to Achilles Thomas, one of the owners of Monster Transmission, and he said the initial lawsuit was filed between October and November of 2008 and hasn't come close to settling, even though the Mini Golf case settled in January. Naughty, naughty.
Read - Audioholics post on the lawsuit
Read - Monster Transmissions
Why dont they sue Monster Energy drinks too?
Because Monster drinks might actually have enough money and lawyers to fight back.
I'm not sure why Monster cables is going to all this effort to make money off lawsuits - do they not make enough money off of $100 HDMI cables already?
They already did.
Monster Energy drink is distributed by Coca Cola, so it's safe to say they have enough money to fight something like this. No doubt the douche running Monster Cables will never go after a company that actually has any money.
Reading this makes me wish again and again that the court system would implement a "frivolous lawsuit" penalty. Make it, oh, QUINTUPLE what the "plantif" is suing for. Maybe that will clear the courts a bit.
don't forget Monsters vs. Aliens ....
Holy crap, I just took a look at their page on wikipedia. That company is evil.
And in case you're wondering, the DID sue Monster Energy Drink.
And Pixar for Monsters, Inc.
And Discovery for Monster Garage.
And Monster.com
Plus, even though they are an "american" company headquartered in California, they are Incorporated in Bermuda, so's to avoid federal income taxes.
Thay did: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/08/BUG1J9N3C61.DTL&type=business
Somehow, I couldn't imagine seeing a television listing for "Big-ass Truck Jam" (M*nster Jam) on Speed.
DAMNIT i was gonna say that...oh well
What about that show that used to be on discovery channel i believe....Monster Garage?
...crap just read that someone else said that already...sigh...ill just low rank myself and waddle on over to my monster corner... (dnt sue me plz)
Monster Cable, an evil, manipulative overpriced company suing one of the last American based performance auto shops. Has a nice "Fox News at 11!" ring to it.
I emplre All Americans to STOP purchasing anything that bears the mark "Monster Cable" AKA "We mark-up Made in China stuff and then we take your money and buy Non-American Cars...
And try not to buy anything that does not have packaging in Red White and Blue...
They should also sue the PRON industry...
MONSTER COCKS
i will NEVER buy another Monster Cable product again.
Maybe everyone else should sue Monster for ill repute, because when I see that name I think "oh, the company that makes overpriced shit"
Can someone sue Monster Cable over the rigged displays? For false advertising/price gouging or something like that? I mean, I don't have the money to hire a lawyer for that, but I think it would be the appropriate course of action considering their cables are no better then $15 cables and the fact that they continue to sue people for using the word Monster in any way, shape or form.
@ minh do -
why did you buy in the first place? don't like money, eh?
This company is the biggest piece of shit in existence. and here I had thought that they had learned something with monster mini-golf...how foolish of me to think that this company could be able to learn ANYTHING!
Next to be sued:
Monster.com
Monster Garage
The Monster Mash
The Munsters
Munster cheese ...
everyone should send David Tognotti legal@monstercable.com a letter. I did.
I met Kevin Lee (the son of the founder of Monster Cable). He's quite the asshole:-D
Who's Next? Monster Garage? I don't think they want to mess with Jesse James.
Actually they are going to sue over the movie title "Monsters Inc." . They will also sue anyone who has ever produced a "Monster film" such as cloverfield or godzilla.
Oh yeah, Monster Garage - especially since Jesse James is a bit more in the celebrity limelight these days.
Next thing you know they'll sue somebody for the song Monster Mash
"Monsters Inc" ??? Are you kidding me? Do you know who made this movie? It's Pixar.
Who owns Pixar? Disney (and Apple) In other word, Jobs has a piece of it.
That D*ck wouldn't dare to do that.
Monoprice FTW !
I think they are going to just sue all monsters, and issue them a cease and desist order to stop their monster ways.
Sesame Street presents: Cookie Beast
Attorneys are vermin.
Hey! I resemble that remark!
@ Nilay Patel
You're a rat?
Monster CEO: "Here's the deal, GC - Our biggest partner-in-crime, Circuit City, is now defunct and we're going broke. Plus, we have no real engineering talent in-house, so you obviously have no patent prosecution to concern yourself with. Go find us a quick and shameless way to make a few million dollars or you're fired."
Monster GC: "Uh ohhhh... (Thinks to self how many attorneys are unemployed right now) ...OK, let me get the Yellow Pages."
@Nilay
Sometimes rats are cute, so... don't take it too personally :)
You are, like, the Remy of vermin! :)
cmon now Nilay - we just like to think you them as the cute little bugger from Ratatouille ;)
I love it when Engadget gets all aggressive. :D
RAWR!
I guess you can say their aggressiveness makes them sound like a monster.
Oh crap! I'd better hire a lawyer!
lol
this company seriously turns my stomach...
Oh for Christ's sake.
MONOPRICE!!!!!!!!!! all i gotta say.
I think Discovery and Monster Garage would have a better stand against Monster Transmissions than Monster cable (read: Snake Oil). But what do I know, I'd never buy a Monster cable.
I think a better tactic than boycotting their cables would be to email Best Buy and tell them you won't shop there anymore because of this.
Dude,I work for BestBuy and I buy my HDMI cables at Wal-Mart. Gotta love Philips.
Walmart? What happened to Monoprice.com?
When it comes to cables, they got the best prices.
Why would you buy your cables from Wal-Mart, your employee discount enables you to get Rocketfish and Dynex cables for a few dollars, better then even Monoprice.
When will some other Monster company sue Monster Cable?
When they invent time machines that allow you to pre-date your trademark.
@bandigolo - I was wondering what to call my new time travel company. Thanks for the inspiration. Look for an upcoming engadget post about Monster Time Travel (tm).
When will some other "Cable" company sue Monster Cable?
lol. Frank, I look forward to your impending lawsuit.
How low can they possibly sink....
monoprice.com cables FTW!
The CBC (up here in Canada) did a TV special on the sins of the marketplace. They went into Future Shop and bought a big flatscreen. They decided to let the salespeople do their upsell and agree to everything. The price nearly doubled. Everything FS pushed was made by Monster.... including a $250 HDMI cable. They tested it against a $12 one and the test equipment couldn't tell the difference. They are such a slimy company and I will never buy anything with their name on it.
Let them keep suing. Everytime they do that, their reputation keeps falling. If there is a fair but angry god of consumerism, perhaps it will push them over the edge and they will disappear.
What this Monster Transmission company needs to do is buy a Monster Cable for use on their showroom display or whatever, then test it against a standard cable... when the results come back identical (or better yet, in favor of the standard cable), counter-sue Monster for false advertising and bankrupt them once and for all.
Super facepalm
Don't you mean...
MONSTER FACEPALM????!!!
............................................________
....................................,.-‘”...................``~.,
.............................,.-”...................................“-.,
.........................,/...............................................”:,
.....................,?......................................................,
.................../...........................................................,}
................./......................................................,:`^`..}
.............../...................................................,:”........./
..............?.....__.........................................:`.........../
............./__.(.....“~-,_..............................,:`........../
.........../(_....”~,_........“~,_....................,:`........_/
..........{.._$;_......”=,_.......“-,_.......,.-~-,},.~”;/....}
...........((.....*~_.......”=-._......“;,,./`..../”............../
...,,,___.`~,......“~.,....................`.....}............../
............(....`=-,,.......`........................(......;_,,-”
............/.`~,......`-...................................../
.............`~.*-,.....................................|,./.....,__
,,_..........}.>-._...................................|..............`=~-,
.....`=~-,__......`,.................................
...................`=~-,,.,...............................
................................`:,,...........................`..............__
.....................................`=-,...................,%`>--==``
........................................_..........._,-%.......`
...................................,
Ok, I gotta hide, lawyers after me.
Did they go after monster.com too?
I'm totally starting my own company called Inc Incorporated just so I can go after all other companies with "Inc" in their names.
Ooh, "Engadget is a member of the Weblogs, Inc. Network" - look out!
Yes they did, look at the small print on monster.com
List of companies they've sued, including fenway park (green monster seats) and disney (monsters inc.)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/08/BUG1J9N3C61.DTL&type=business
I didn't believe you so I went to the site..... you have to be kidding me.
Haha, that's awesome.
They should TOTALLY change the text so it has an ALT tag of "overpriced cable junk"
What I still don't get is why a job posting site also makes cables. Weird.
I cannot stand Monster Cable and their overpriced crap. Hats off to Blue Jeans Cable and Monoprice.com
That's the end of me biting my tongue when I see someone looking to maybe buy their cables in a store. Hopefully everyone will join the campaign and advise total strangers when the opportunity arises that Monster Cable is a gross rip off.
If I were more of a jerk, it would be a fun pastime to just loiter in the stores and interrupt salesmen during the upsell.
Gadgetfreak your examples of a Microsoft sandwich store, and a Honda software company are flawed. Microsoft is an invented word combination, and Honda does actually make software for their cars.... Monster has existed commonly in the English language for hundreds of years its a generic term. Both of these companies should be able to protect their name in those fields. As for you argument of if you don't use it, you lose it, for protecting it. I think they should win if they already had a transmission shop opened up, not just sitting in a file folder somewhere the idea of i might maybe open a shop sometime. If i write down 500 different types of companies that i could maybe make one day, i will protect my generic term, such as armchair. Thats not doing work or actually trying to progress the name your just sueing people who use a common word..
Now their latest attack focuses against Monster Transmission, a family owned company that specializes in high performance transmissions for hot rods & muscle cars.
Jesse James to the rescue!
I think Herman Munster should sue Monster Cable...
Maybe Monster Transmission & Performance was charging big $$$ for tune ups that didn't produce any noticeable difference.
BAM!
The FOOL that owns Monster Cable lives here in the Bay Area. Does he think he f***ing owns the word "Monster". Last time I checked, you can't trademark "everyday" words. Note to Idiot CEO, "Monster" is what YOU ARE "Monster Cable" is what you own, dummy!!!!!
These lawsuits happen every day. Companies have to enforce their copyrights or they lose them. Aspirin set the first president where they didn’t protect their brand. Once they didn’t anybody could use the Aspirin name to sell their version of the drug. Starbucks does the same thing... shutting down little mom and pop shops that were there before them. Because their brand name in many cases will make or break the company.
Monster determined that this particular company is creating brand confusion, they will win either way because a court will determine if the other company is actually doing so. Otherwise if they just sit there and make no effort, you and I could start a cable company call them Monsters cables and because they have never made any effort to protect their brand it will public domain and I can get business from customers that don’t know the difference. Or start a travel Company called Expeda.com and get folks that can’t spell.
It’s pretty popular right now (up to our president) to sit and hate on large companies but this isn’t like your average Joe that sits around looking for people/businesses to sue. Those are two different things entirely.
give me a damn break
This is not a case of other cable companies using Monster in their name, this is a case of something like Microsoft going around and suing all the window companies because it creates "brand cofnusion"
gadgetfreak wrote "Aspirin set the first president where they didn’t protect their brand."
Hmm, I didn't think that GW could eat aspirin due to his wooden teeth.
trademark != copyright
precedent != president
the more you know...
There's a difference between protecting your trademark and going after a company that has nothing to do with your business just because it has a part of your vague company name. Monster Cable does not have to sue Monster Transmission because they both have a common word in their name and have nothing to do with each other. Should Monster Cable sue every company that has the word "cable" in their name?
In fact I'm sure there's at least one company that has the word cable in their name that was around before Monster was, they should give them a little taste of their own medicine.
No, don't give me that bullshit excuse. There's a clear distinction here between Monster the cable maker and Monster Transmission & Performance. How can you have brand confusion walking up to this autoshop and thinking you're going to get cables. It's bullshit on Monsters part. I understand protecting your brand here but Monster has sued almost any business with "Monster" in it's name and not a single one has been connected to high-end electronics. Now get the fuck out of here.
gadgetfreak works for monster - its pretty clear.
Gadgetfreak, your lack of knowledge of the law in the area pretty much shows you to be the chief legal goon for Monster Cable. As someone already stated, you're confusing trademark law with copyright law.
Beyond that stupid gaff though, Monster Cable is on VERY thin ice here. Pretty much none of the companies they are suing or have sued has ANYTHING to do with making cables. There is zero confusion in the marketplace about this - and that's the only way Monster Cable will win in court.
Monster, however, gets legally slimy by attempting to trademark any and everything under the sun for use with the name Monster. So, they can say since they have a specific trademark for use of "Monster" in relation to, say, golf, they can sue a miniature golf company. The problem with that is that, in order for a trademark to become and remain valid, you have to actually produce goods for which your trademark was granted. You can't just obtain a trademark and not use it by slapping it on a product - which is EXACTLY what Monster Cable is trying to do.
As soon as someone grows a pair and doesn't mind spending a few bucks, they should be able to slap Monster back to the stone ages and have all their illegitimate trademarks rescinded.
Your correct I typed copywrite where as i meant trademark. The thing that is pretty funny is that you dont have to be in the same business. You guys actually believe that you can start a sandwich shop and name it Microsoft corporation and thats legal. It aint. Get away from the emotion and your dislike for their products and you shouldnt be suprised that EVERY company has to enforce this accross anybody.
Your emotions get the best of you and you sit around with a group of people that agree with you and you stay confused to why judges are not throwing this out. You do realize a judge can throw out a lawsuit if there are not merits correct? why dont you think these get thrown out? Because everybody gets a paycheck from Monster?
Go start your Honda software company. see how far you get. See how far your obfuscated legal logic gets you.
Focus on Typos, not law. you just look like silly little haters that pretend to know the law.
Is Monster Cable coming out with a line of 6-Speed Transmissions we don't know about? Sounds like somebody can't get enough bad publicity for their company. I applaud the effort.
Maybe they made the DSG for the GTR since it cost $2000 for the regular scheduled maintenance.
So I went to Monster Cable's website to see if they had announced this lawsuit there, they hadn't. But I surfed around and found this "great" customer comment on their $30 USB cables. I quote:
Monster USB™ Ultimate Performance USB Cable
“This USB product was so great it allowed my printer to work. ”
- BETTY JOE
Now, if that is not convincing enough to make me purchase an overprice cable I don't know what is...
What is most problematic and offensive to me is that it's quite obvious that Monster Cable is going in for the kill with the uninformed.
Anyone who follows tech news or has moderate experience with high def equipment knows by now that Monster Cable is an overpriced sham. Quite bluntly, if you honestly believe that Monster Cable offers a product superior to their competitors in any way, you are simply delusional. However, the general public who isn't informed enough to know that there is virtually no difference in HDMI signal delivery will continually fall for Monster's crap, hook line and sinker. And if they don't know the difference between component and HDMI (as with the Fry set up), who is to blame them?
Monster Cable needs to die. Everyone in this thread owes it to themselves to spread the word to friends and family who don't follow this stuff as closely as we do. It's apparent at this point that Monster only has a shot of actually making money through litigation, so hopefully their death can't be TOO far off.
Well hopefully this company doesn't just sell over hyped "Transmission" Lines..
They should the Loch Ness Monster. That dang Monster owes me 3.50.
Now i told you not to give that loch ness monster no tree fidy!
And I told YOU to get back in the closet!
Well, it shouldn't be a big deal. Although the name Monster is used in both, they're operating in two separate and distinct industries. If the auto store was somehow doing something with Monster Cables by using them in their cars and making it seem like it was their brand or something, I could understand. But since they're in two separate industries it will be a hard sell. I'm also not sure how long either company has been around in terms of who used the name first. etc.
Looking forward to some flaccid Monster©™® rep simpering about how they're just being misunderstood.
Perhaps they might consider a new name. I recommend Douchebag Cables©™®.
nice..but how about "Butt Cables"...
I emailed Monster and scolded them. Protecting their brand my ass. The owner is now on my hit list :D
Watch out Monster.com, Monster Trucks, Monster Movie Makeup show at Universal Studios, and Cookie Monster... someones coming for you next!
Half of those have already been hit
I read the whole response of Blue Jeans cable. Hilarious. I really liked:
"It looks like when you sent this letter, you were operating on the premise that I am not smart enough to see through your deceptions or sophisticated enough to intelligently evaluate your claims; shame on you. You are required, as a matter of legal ethics, to display good faith and professional candor in your dealings with adverse parties, and you have fallen miserably short of your ethical responsibilities."
Hopefully the rest of the companies will do something similar. Without more sues, how long can monster cable last in this economy?
I just want to be on the record as saying that Monster is dumb.
Make me want to start a fake website with the name 'Monster' all over it, just to piss them off
such slimeballs
WHAT??? This is nonsense... I MEAN WTF!!!! So does anybody has copy-written the word "The" and can they sue anybody that has the word "The" in it. How about if I copy-write the word Inc? Can I just everyone??? I mean give me a break!!! They acting like if they event the word. So does that means that makers of Monster Munch can sue Monster Cable if they wanted? I mean they did have their company before 1963 compared to Monster Cable which was 1979. Plus I thought that when you add a word (ex. Monster TRANSMISSION) it changes everything. Plus I also thought you can do this for example. If Apple has Apple, Inc that you can do Apple Corp. So I dont know what was the deal with the whole Beatles thing. I mean when I open up a company and they tell me the name is taken with the Inc, the tell me I can choose Corp. so.... ?????????
I took a Monster dump the other day. Should I be worried about them coming after me?