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Source: http://unfairlawsuits.com/ December 13, 2008

Monster Cable Strong-Arms MonsterVintage.com News Update 02/19/05 News update: Coming soon UNFAIRLAWSUITS.COM. This website will be for people that have been attacked by unfair legal mobsters like ourselves. In response to the following email from an ebay auction we are gathering the facts to see where this can go, pretty interesting! Q: Hello, I am bidding on this with great empathy for you. I went through 4 years of fighting a phoney $250,000.00 lawsuit. I have looked over a bit of your situation. 1. Their suit is without MERIT. They have NO just claims. 2. I have conducted patent and trademark searches since 1980. Their claims are baseless. An honest attorney could have shut them down in a heartbeat. Yours, most likely, was bleeding you in collusion with the opposing attorney. 3. If what you say is correct, that they have defrauded others with this scam - there IS a wonderful solution. Call the FBI and charge the attorneys and Monster Cable with interstate racketeering under RICO. If you research RICO you will find that they qualify as organized crime under this definition. PUT THEIR sorry asses in prison where they belong - Then gather others harmed by their phoney claim to a common word and sue the attorneys personally and Monster cable for a just amount (millions) in punitive damages. Best regards, Ray News Update 02/07/05 5:30 pm, receive call from Monster Cable's in house Attorney, Dave tognoti asking why the Monster Vintage logo is back up on the website, I told him that it is our logo and that is where it goes, on our website. He then said that he would be watching. I stated that Noel Lee dropped the law suit and in the Motion for Dismissal to the court there is no mention about our logo or any other reason for dropping the case. After a few minutes of trying to talk with him he hung up the phone on me. Our logo which is very different, is now back on our website. We feel like Monster Cable was using our logo as an excuse to cover up their real reason for coming after us when there was a lot of publicity, prior to the public outrage all the demand letters were only about our name......this whole legal battle was just a strong arm move to get us to sign under their license so they can try to claim they are famous when in actuality, they have just out "financed" other Monster companies into signing their license agreement. News Update 01/20/2005 Monster Cable DROPS Case Against Monster Vintage like Scared RATS Jumping from a Sinking Ship! and it wasn't because our logo True to their name, Monster Cable has left us with monster-sized bills and devastated finances after nearly three years of legal turmoil. As the owners of Monster Vintage, Victor Petrucci and myself, Cathy West, suffered endless harassment and mounting threats from Monster Cable to relinquish our company?s name. Our e-commerce clothing business became the target of a vicious campaign designed to coerce us to pay up or else. It sounds like a bad Hollywood mobster movie. Noel Lee, The Head Monster of Monster Cable, seems to have a personal vendetta against anyone who dares use the word monster in their business name. He systematically runs businesses into the ground using strong-arm legal tactics to force business owners to pay him off or hand over a chunk of their profits in order to keep their own company?s name. ?The Head Monster? goes after large and small companies and hundreds like ours who cannot afford the fight just cave in. We wonder how many small companies Noel Lee has monstered out of business and how many livelihoods he has destroyed. We want people to know the truth about Noel Lee, founder of Monster Cable and how your tax dollars are being wasted in the Trademark and Federal Courts because of his legal mobsterism. Using our own legal system, The Head Monster intimidates companies into signing a license agreement giving Monster Cable ownership of the word monster and claiming profits from products sold by any company with the word monster in their name. Monster Cable clearly has no respect for our nation?s trademark laws, which are in place to protect companies rights, not satisfy Mr. Lee?s greedy appetite. We've heard the U.S. Trademark Office had to dedicate an entire room for Monster Cables files. It appears most companies drop their name or sign the license agreement for lack of adequate legal defense and financial resources. The larger companies with unlimited legal funds have "secret" settlements, probably just dropped cases but kept off the record so future Oppositions will not see what happened. It's easy for Monster Cable to take advantage of small entrepreneurs with limited experience in Trademark laws, Monster Cable claims to own hundreds of products under the monster name. It's sad that all those hard working people pay someone like Noel Lee for their business. The Head Monster says he's not after the money even though we were told by his lawyer the usual price of the license agreement is $3,000 to $5,000. The lawyer told us come up with money and make our payment out to Monster Cable. And then to keep our name, we would have to pay a percentage of what we make. "The Head Monster" says he?s not after money; so we guess to him our small profits would not be making money. Renewals are required and we wonder how much that would be after your business has grown and they control your name under their "monster" license. Since our terrible experience with Monster Cable, we have lost time, money, peace of mind, and valuable attention to Monstervintage.com. We have been put through enormous emotional and financial suffering because of the brutal, frivolous lawsuit brought against us by Monster Cable and "The Head Monsters" obsession to own everything that contains monster in its name. Victor and I built this business together and before "The Head Monster" reared his ugly head, we were planning to get married. We both were looking forward to a beautiful ceremony and special honeymoon until this legal battle sucked our dreams and money right out of our pockets. Now with debt looming over us like suffocating black smoke the financial burden is too heavy for even a small celebration. This is Monster Vintage's story and it's like a bad dream, but it?s real. We have put some of the legal documents below and are sharing some personal information, so that people can judge for themselves. We can fax or mail copies of these documents, if requested. Below is a very short outline of what has happened. We?ve started from the beginning for the people who are not aware of these atrocities committed by Monster Cable. And to the readers that have followed our Monster Cable nightmare, we really appreciate your time and support and emails! „P Around 9/2002, we received the first call demanding we stop using Monster Vintage or sign license agreement and pay $1000.00 (a reduced fee from $5000.00) and 1% gross income thereafter. „P 5/2002, a letter arrived demanding a check for the license agreement to be made out to Monster Cable. „P Another letter demanding we cease to use Monster Vintage. Then, Monster Cable brought an expensive, outrageous Federal lawsuit against us, trying to dominate the monster word and claiming unfair trade practices and infringement on their electronic cable Trademark. Our business consist of buying and selling vintage clothing, not electronic cables or anything even remotely related to that industry. We don't even produce anything new. Monstervintage.com buys old vintage clothing from small Thrift Stores and independent clothing sellers. Businesses we buy from help support Senior Centers, Charities, homeless shelters, and animal shelters. We also buy from the only clothing recycler in Oregon. Monster Vintage creates income for numerous independent businesses, as well as creative, and computer and technical people. Unlike Monster Cable, we are not a Fortune 500 enterprise. Our contribution to the economy is insignificant compared to Monster Cable, but our work is honest, and a legitimate contribution to the community and our environment. But because we use the word monster in our name, The Head Monster wants to run us out of business. Since we had not filed a Trademark, our case was sent to Federal Court and we are now buried in legal fees. Victor and I feel Noel Lee, The Head Monster, owes us, our clients, and our customers. „P Victor went to Monster cable in Brisbane and the Monster Park opening in San Francisco with a billboard truck to protest Monster Cable and there Attorneys. „P Spent grueling hours, days, and weeks researching and trying to defend Monstervintage.com in court Pro Se since we couldn't afford a trademark lawyer. „P Filed a motion for Change of Venue „P Lost time at work, lost time at home with family, lost sleep, lost peace of mind. „P Hired a trademark lawyer because trying to figure out what to do was entirely too overwhelming. „P Our doorway-sized calendar is filled with Court dates, and were desperately trying to figure out how to be at all hearings, mediations, and appearance dates. „P WON CHANGE OF VENUE! It is rare to get this type of Federal case moved for the defendant and we won! „P Meetings with attorneys. „P Phone calls with attorneys. „P More meetings with attorneys. „P Monster Cable called our attorneys saying they wanted to make a deal, but we had only a few hours to do it. The deal was to remove the info on our website and keep our mouths shut. The following weekend we planned to meet with Snow Monster and boycott Monster Cable at the Las Vegas tradeshow. On 01/06/2005, we heard that Snow Monster had suddenly changed their story and would not say a word to us. It seems they buckled under The Head Monsters weight. Monster Cable didn't want bad publicity at the Consumer Electronics Show. so while there from his motel room answering forms saying we have No Law Suits with anyone, then having his friends using his laptop leave lies about monster cable as you can see by the IP address ( did you not think anybody was that smart) We had managed to be in several major newspapers and on a lot of awesome forums. But more needs to be done so we can all use the word. If we came to the CES, we would have let the whole, unedited truth out during The Head Monsters show-off time in Las Vegas. „P Monster Cable files a motion with the Court to dismiss case against Monster Vintage. Throughout our research, we saw the pattern within the Trademark Courts of Monster Cable filing lawsuits, putting the pressure on companies, and then bailing out if the legal battle gets tough. There were are also secret settlements whose results conveniently couldn't be seen. The Head Monster must not want anyone else to be able to refer to these cases because if they could, they would see where Monster Cable is willing to fold. Without an effective lawyer and the money to pay the legal fees, it?s virtually impossible to battle The Head Monster. It was a huge victory to win our change of venue and not have to appear in California. To get this far was very expensive and extremely difficult, and most people couldn?t continue fighting. Sometimes you can get a lot done and said even if you re just a small guy. „P We thought about it, but decided it was too ridiculous and unfair. „P More letters from Monster Cable attorneys. „P A letter came claiming to have my signature on a certified receipt, stating to the court that I had been served the Summons on the Law Suit filed. I went to my Post Master and got a print-out of the Certified Receipt that someone in another state had supposedly signed for me. The Attorney?s used this receipt; how ethical is that? „P Called Court Clerk to get information and learned how to go to the Pacer Government site to see the case. (Our file date and case number is shown on our website front page.) „P Wrote a letter to the judge complaining about the Attorney?s false signature on the USPS Receipt. The Court Clerk notified Monster Cable?s attorney with Judges orders to correct this problem. The court was not pleased. „P Spent hours, days, weeks, and months researching what to do. „P Spent hours, days, weeks, and months trying to find an attorney. The case is filed in California; we?re in the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington area. Trademark lawyers want $10,000 to $50,000 to take the case. „P Victor spent five hours on the phone with Monster Cable?s in-house attorney, Mr. Tognotti on the Saturday before the opening of Monster Park, the result of a $6 million deal to rename Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Our attempt to reach an agreement failed. Monster Cable insist on having us under their license, so that they can own Monstervintage.com, control what we can and cannot sell, and can cancel our agreement at any time. We have worked hard to build our business. Victor and I both come from difficult situations. We?ve struggled through hardships, downfalls, and great personal and family tragedies. But we?ve pulled ourselves through, and for the first time in our lives we managed to create a good stable life. The ?The Head Monster? came along and threatened to take it all away. Without a second thought, that by taking our name, Monster Cable would put us out of business and out on the street! It has been devastating! How do you stand up and protect yourself from a billion dollar company? Since Monster Cable is extremely experienced in these lawsuits, and unfortunately our lawyers aren?t, they filed the case in such a way that we cannot go back on them for our losses. The best we can do is to continue to protest Monster Cable until the end of time or until they repair the damage they have done to us. We want ?The Head Monster? Noel Lee, to clean up his mess. He has cost us a enormous amount of money, worry, and time. Noel Lee has publicly stated in Audiophile forums that he does not file lawsuits of this nature. His denial of this lawsuit is the same as saying we?re so insignificant that we don?t deserve to be acknowledged. But we, like all other small businesses trying to make it in this country, deserve to be recognized. We believe Monster Cable?s accusation of trademark infringement and their attorney?s use fraudulent papers to file a service of summons with the court are unethical and unjust actions. One of the demands in the license agreement Monster Cable wanted us to sign was that we would never file for a trademark for Monster Vintage. We have and are now waiting for an assignment. We won?t be surprised if Monster Cable comes after us again. We know we don?t have any legal recourse against ?The Head Monster,? but we do have freedom of speech. And until Noel Lee puts right what he did wrong, we will be heard! We have received amazing support from hundreds of people -- our customers, clients, and others who don?t even know us. THANK YOU! And to our customers, we apologize for not being able to conduct business as well as we normally would have and for the times we have not been able to live up to our monstrous goal of vast inventory and adding new items to the website. Since Monster Cable came into our lives, we?ve had to spend most of our time just trying to keep our livelihood from being taken by Monster Cable's Trademark attorney's. Noel Lee, you don?t even have a clue how much you have hurt us! But then, we shouldn?t expect a ?Monster? to even care. Read On... http://www.monstergreed.com/Index%20with%20info%20about%20MC.htm http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php a=2559 www.madmartian.com/legal/ Please Email Them Your Thoughts nlee@monstercable.com iebaran@monstercable.com dgraham@monstercable.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is this LaRiviere, Grubman & Payne?s ethical standard, cheating the small guy Monstervintage.com would rather just sell some cool vintage clothing and be left alone and not harassed & bullied by over legalized Monster Cable and their Attorneys. Monstervintage.com Cathy West Victor Petrucci GREAT FEEDBACKS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Response to monster cable & monstervintage.com I will tell you this. I currently have over 150 lin. ft. of your CL-3 rated 14/4 in wall cable permanently run throughout my Home Theater. With the excess I had left over, I used it to make speaker wire for my front three channels. As of five minutes ago after reading this story, I ordered new speaker wire for my front three channels, and new interconnects and component video cables to replace every bit of Monster cable that was infecting my system. If I could, I would pull it from the wall as well. Every last piece is going in the trash. I will most certainly do everything in my power to discourage any and all from ever buying another of your products. Don't underestimate the strength of my voice either. I am a very well respected and very active participant on many of the audio and home theater forums on the web. You are nothing but a corporate bully that is too full of themselves. You should be ashamed. John B Indianapolis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Response to monster cable & monstervintage.com To: Monstercable Mr. David M. Tognotti & Noel Lee General Counsel Monster Cable Products, Inc. 455 Valley Drive Brisbane, CA 94005 PH:1.415.840.2000 Dear Mr. Tognotti, I read with great curiosity Victors email regarding Monster Cable vs. Monster Vintage. I am no legal expert, and am just a consumer of both companies who is voicing his personal opinion. I have used Monster Cables for a very long time. Specifically, I use your speaker cables as well as your RCA cables in my home theater surround sound system. These are excellent products of the highest quality that warrant brand protection. I have also purchased vintage clothing from Monster Vintage a few months ago. I was looking for an authentic 70?s outfit, and found it on monstervintage.com. I was also very satisfied with my purchase and would do so again. At no point in time during my research, visit to the monstervintage.com website, or in purchasing from them that I even thought of cables, or your cabling company. In fact, the only time I thought about the two companies happen to be at this very moment, writing this email in disbelief and disgust. I feel that what you are doing is akin to the bid bad bully on the playground, going after a poor little kids lunch money. It is appalling that you would use such strong-arm tactics and arrogance forcing a small business owner to give up control of his domain name, and extorting from him a license to continue using a generic name. I am so angry and disgusted at what your company is doing, I will no longer purchase Monster Cable products ever again. A consumer who votes with his dollars, Tim Information Systems Engineer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: AudioAsylum Posting Dear Mr. Petrucci, I read your posting on the Cables section of the Audio Asylum website. First off, I?m a little concerned you aren?t getting the best legal advice, given your request for experiences regarding copyright issues; although I haven?t read Monster Cable?s Federal complaint, I?d assume they?re proceeding on various trademark theories (infringement and dilution, under the Lanham Act and possible similar State statutes), not copyright grounds, because it is impossible to get copyright protection for a single word (e.g., ?monster?). Indeed, it is nearly impossible to get trademark protection for a single word, because that would essentially take the word out of everyday commercial speech (the lone exception to this general rule is the word ?olympic,? which belongs to the USOC under a special ?super-trademark? statute passed by Congress). Monster Cable?s suit against you seems fraught with problems, because the word ?monster? is so prevalent in commercial speech, particularly on the internet (e.g., monster.com, monsterfilm.com, monstercrawler.com, factmonster.com). Also, and you don?t directly or indirectly compete with Monster Cable?in fact, vintage clothing is about as far removed from stereo cables as a purveyor of goods (as opposed to services) can get. A recent news story out of the Bay Area illustrates the relative ?weakness? (i.e., poor source-identification ability) of the word ?monster?: it seems Monster Cable recently purchased the naming rights at Candlestick Park, where the NFL 49?ers play, so that stadium is now called ?Monster Park.? But many people in the area believe the actual purchaser of the rights was the job search company Monster.com, so Monster Cable isn?t getting the advertising benefit it thought it would! I don?t know if any of this helps, but good luck. Randy Hanson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Note concerning trademark lawsuit Cathy and Victor, When I first started reading about the Monster Cable lawsuits a few days ago, I thought it was an Internet joke, but obviously it is not. I first learned about it here http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php s=&threadid=214568 I couldn?t believe some of their lawsuits; sueing Hannah Barbera for an episode of Scooby-Doo having MONSTER in the title!! The fact that they wanted 1% from your small company literally made me noxious. I am a salesman that works in a large chain store that sells Monster Cables, among other generic cables. Before today, I sold these cables and their surge protectors on a regular basis when people would buy DVD players, stereos and TVs. Starting today, I will no longer recommend or sell Monster Cable products. I will just sell the much cheaper, generic alternatives. If they drop all their frivolous lawsuits, I may consider selling them again, but not before. Now, I realize that they probably will not miss a couple hundred dollars of lost sales a day, but if there are others that are thinking like I am, it could add up to a lot more. Do not waiver! Toby ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: OT: I found out about a VERY bad company! (SF Bay area) I just found out that a cable company in the San Francisco Bay area is trying to copyright the word MONSTER so that it can only be used by them in business... the way they are going about this is first, by literally STEALING domain names from existing companies (by forging signatures and re-registering the name for themselves) and second, by suing small businesses that use the word MONSTER in their name! They're suing our friends Victor and Kathy, who make their entire livings selling vintage clothing on monstervintage.com, for *copyright infringement*. Yes, a CABLE COMPANY named Monster Cable is suing a VINTAGE CLOTHING COMPANY named Monster Vintage for copyright infringement. Gee, that makes sense! They're doing it to other small companies, too, and most of them cave in because Monster Cable is a huge corporation with millions to spend. Small companies don't stand a chance! I am soooo mad right now. I HATE this. If you have the urge to tell a despicable company what you think of that kind of behavior, you can email them at tnorrish@monstercable.com (marketing) or cleib@monstercable.com (PR). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Words From A Friend From: RICHARD To: Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 Subject: Monster Vintage There's a restaurant here in Portland, Oregon that serves a Monster Burger. I suppose you will be going after them for royalties every time they sell one .There's a chance this problem you're having with Victor might just turn into a MONSTER and bite you people on the ass ! Have a nice day, Richard ------ End of Forwarded Message ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of Many LICENSE AGREEMENTS From Monster Cable -Monster Cable will grant Monster Vintage a license to use "Monster Vintage" and "monstervintage.com" for the sale of new and used clothing on the Internet. Monster Vintage will not have the right to use "Monster" on clothing items or products. Monster Vintage will cease using the "M" logo, or any other logo style or font which is similar to Monster Cable's. The term of the license will be for 10 years, with 5 renewable options at Monster Vintage's request. Monster Vintage will not be charges a royalty fee for this license, nor a fee for any renewals. Monster Vintage must continue to operate its website at a quality level equal to what it currently providing. If Monster Vintage fails to meet these quality standards, Monster Cable may terminate the agreement after providing Monster Vintage notice and a 30 day period to cure. Monster Vintage will not file a registration (or attempt to register) any of the licensed marks. Monster Vintage may assign this license, if the company is sold upon Monster Cable's approval, which will not be unreasonably withheld, provided that the new owner agrees to the provisions of the agreement. -If the parties are able to reach agreement on a license, Monster Cable will dismiss its lawsuit and claim for damages. If I missed anything, please let me know. Thank you, Dave David M. Tognotti General Counsel