Monster Cable Goes On A Suing Spree!

[Renzatic Gear]

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~2611825,00.html

Pretty soon all of the English language will be patented, and then we'll all be screwed.

But on a side note, I'm thinking about patenting .com and going out to sue everyone and their grandma.

[moya]

I need beer.

[moya]

I'm going to have a monster hangover in the morning...

Oh shi-

[Renzatic Gear]

Pretty soon we'll probably see a new member named Monster Cable pop up...he's already signed up on TTLG, and the guy posts on other forums as well.

It's their way to do damage control, to put a pretty picture on what is basically a really frivilous and greedy lawsuit.

[Aku]

What do you expect from a company that put its name on the ugliest stadium in pro sports. Part of the blame goes to companies like Disney. Disney had plenty enough resources to slap down Monster Cable's pitiful extortion bid, and that would have been the end of it. But like many big companies with lots of cash, Disney took the lazy way out, gave Monster some money and the promise of some deals, and now little businesses that have Monster in their name have to pay the price. Several years ago Jeep was doing the same thing. We all know the solution - don't buy the company's products, and tell them why you're not buying. Maybe Monster's scumbag lawyer can come up with a new marketing plan for them when sales drop.

Here's the address if you want to drop them an opinion.

legal@monstercable.com

[Friend_Bear]

See why America has such as bad international name for itself? In England, America is used as joke in many school yards, and now I see why, what country in there right mind would allow anyone to sue so many companies who legally made money for using one name that IS NOT LEGALLY patented, you can't patent a common use word such as monster, if you had a totally unique name for your company or product then just possible you could patent it and sue for unlawful use.

Basically I would like to see some drastic changes in the law to prevent BS like this, or in the future you'll not be able to breath in fresh air without paying $$$ in legal fees to pay some jerk who put a patent on it and sueing, overreacting? In this country, proberly not.

I thought extortion was illegal? This practice is pretty much the same thing.

[Aku]

The solution is to strengthen frivolous lawsuit laws, and make it possible for the company being sued to countersue for extortion. I'm sure Monster Cable would back off trying to get the Internt dress seller to pay them $1,000 a month if the dress seller could countersue Monter for $10 million. In the meantime, it still comes back to corporate cowards like Disney that take the easy way out, which encourages companies like Monster to become real monsters.

[Hieremias]

It won't work, simply because it's already been tried. Years ago Playboy tried to copyright the word "playmate" for their sole use, they started sueing toy companies that were making dolls and stuffed animals that used that word, and internet companies (like AOL) that were failing to direct users directly to Playboy when that word was searched.

The judge ruled that while corporations have the right to claim specific names--like "Playmate of the Year", a trademark that Playboy does own--they do not have the write to reach into the English dictionary and claim any normal, widely-used word as their own. Playboy lost.

Monster will lose, for the same reason. They really should have done their homework.