Pricey cable-maker Monster is worried you might confuse a haunted house-themed mini-golf course with its popular products, so they’re suing.
From News 10:
Monster Cable Products of Brisbane filed suit in Sacramento federal court this week against the owners of Monster Mini Golf in Rancho Cordova along with the Rhode Island woman who sells Monster Mini Golf franchises.
In its trademark infringement suit, Monster Cable claims the miniature golf courses “are likely to cause confusion.”
Cindy Stoeckle, who with her husband Chris opened the Rancho Cordova location in March, was shocked when News10 told her about the lawsuit.
“What, are they not making money and they have to make some money off the little guys?” she asked.
The company’s founder, Christina Vitagliano of Providence, Rhode Island, said she’s been fighting with Monster Cable since she applied for her trademark in 2006. She said her attorney will defend the Stoeckles.
Monster Cable just loves to sue people! According to News 10 they sued Disney for Monsters, INC, the Boston Red Sox for “Monster Seats” on the big green monster, and is currently trying to keep them from calling the concession stand “Monster Concessions.”
Rancho Cordova Mini Golf Course Hit with “Monster” Lawsuit [News 10]
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Monster Cable’s legal team are breaking their necks in their desperate, frantic bid to drag their company’s name through the mud as much as possible. I will not, ever, buy any prodcut from their company.
@InfiniTrent:
Actually, Monster Cables sued them and they settled.
This article is actually about Monster suing about Monster House, but at the bottom it mentions the lawsuit.
[www.sfgate.com]
Come on people … Where have we seen this over and over. Dying company (or industry … ahem – RIAA) resorts to litigation instead of innovation.
These guys are to cables what Airborne is to cold prevention (you did get your Airborne class action notice, right)? My super ultra favorite part of the story which showed that they were darned close to the level of a wire hanger, pointed out that one main consideration is that Monster came with a warranty, and a wire hanger didn’t; so if the wire hanger broke, you would have to go out and get another wire hanger
Loves it.
That mini golf operator should fight this at every turn because she there is no reason she should not legally be allowed to use the word Monster.
@dry-roasted-peanuts: (video)
WTF?!
My first thought was that once they’d been duly swatted by the court for such a frivolous suit against Disney, the
lawyers would be exposing themselves to possible sanctions by keeping it up. But, alas, apparently Disney settled!?!?
Reminds me of Nissan vs. Nissan: [en.wikipedia.org]
Any company that is still in the b&m video rental business is already
bankrupt, and just hasn’t figured it out. There is absolutely nothing they
can do to stop the ship from sinking. Maybe Hollywood figured it out and
just said screw it. Customers will get pissed off but at least we’ll get a
bit more of their money before we jump ship.
@se7a7n7: fantasmonious
I think I know what the confusion is. I went into a Monster Mini-Golf intending to play and walked out 2 minutes later. What a craphole- I don’t think any effort went into the construction of that golf course, virtually every hole was an L-shaped path with a wooden wedge or two. There was one or two decoration “monsters”. Monster cable wants have a monopoly on crap, and Monster Golf is interfering with it.
Fuck Monster Cable.
I have just registered boycottmonstercable.com and boycottmonstercable.org.
Any hosts or web designers out there that want to join my bandwagon?
These people too? Have we gotten an update on that lawyer they sued who was going to take their asses to the wall?
Monster Cable is a joke. I can’t believe they actually sued Disney over a movie title.
Wow, sueing a minature golf company. A company mind you that has nothing what so ever to do with crappy cables.
They should sue anyone who uses the phrase “overpriced piece of shit” since it clearly refers to their products.
There’s a Monster mini golf location in my area and I’ve always thought that their logo always reminded me of Monster energy drinks. I never even thought of the cable company.
@kingofmars: actually, that really was the fault of the manufacturers, not wanting to give Rambus control or royalties. But, Rambus made some bad decisions, didn’t try to spin the PR, and the no-DDR deal with Intel probably hurt them more than RDRAM helped them. They also hardly went under, and it took three years for a non-Rambus system to catch up on main memory performance (850E until the 865/875/848). Rambus had real gripes, made good technology, and are a pure IP company.
Monster cable has a trademark based on a retail product for connecting electronic devices over small distances. WTH does a mini golf park have to do with that? When Monster loses, can they sued for suing when they knew they were wrong as a predatory tactic?
And why aren’t they going after “Monster.com” as well?
Or are they too afraid to take on a company that can actually afford to defend itself in court?
Just yesterday I had a Monster energy drink and was pissed it didn’t include crappy TV cables
quick, lets start up a music production company called Monster Label under the umbrella of one of the big wig redcord labels, and we’d have unlimited money to fight them in court…
Gosh, why would someone want to name a mini-golf chain after an overpriced cable? Won’t they lose all their customers to Store Brand Mini Golf, which is just as good and much cheaper?
I live literally miles from the Monster Mini Golf in question here, and ironically it’s logo looks suspiciously like the Monster Energy Drink logo.
I still don’t think a word like monster should be able to be owned by anyone…
@weakdome: I believe monster.com was sued. Check out the bottom of monster.com’s website – they were forced to put a link to monster cable!
Monster mini Golf is just a nice inexpensive place to take your family. I went to one on the east coast. I did’t see any wires pop out to try to scare me.
@ClankBoomSteam: Why did you bold an incorrect statement of the law?
You CAN TRADEMARK a word that is in COMMON USAGE.
You’re not going to be able to enforce “Monster” as a trademark if your product is, uhm, monsters (because that’s a generic usage). But use it to sell cables, and you’ve got something (that’s an arbitrary mark in Monster’s case, a fairly strong mark actually). And there’s no problem with me coming in and selling, say, Monster motorcycles. That’s only a problem with well-known marks, and you can see that in action if you tried selling Coca Cola hula hoops.
[www.bitlaw.com] <- a trademark primer for ya.
The message I sent via Monster Cable’s comment form:
“Subject: (other)
Product Name: Mini-golf
I don’t understand…where do I go to find out where to play miniature golf and what the hours are. I came to this site and I was totally confused.
Can you help me out here?
“Roneil Narayan
to me
show details 5:14 PM (2 hours ago)
Reply
Hello Ian,
Thank you for taking time to contact Monster Cable E-mail Customer Support.
Unfortunately Monster Cable Products, Inc. is a manufacturer for superior home theater audio/video accessories and Surge Suppressors. You might have entered this website in an error. We apologize for this and please refine the search in your area for the Mini Golf.
Feel free to contact Monster Cable Products Customer Support on 1 877 800 8989 if you need any assistance with the Products.
Monsterously!!
Technical Services
877-800-8989
MONSTER CABLE PRODUCTS, INC.”
The reply I received:
Public Proposal to Monster Mini Golf
The internet has changed how companies like us can defend our brand and prevent the dilution of our trademarks by those who choose to infringe on them. By appealing to consumers’ emotions using mis-information and distorted truths has created a different dynamic to patent and trademark protection. The sentiment of our customers wins over our rights to protect the brand. Monster Mini Golf is attempting to trademark “Monsterâ€, Monster Mini Golf, and Monster Entertainment in areas that we already own, so we had no choice to file a lawsuit, or otherwise suffer dilution of our mark and potential loss of the mark itself.
It’s costly to sue anyone, no one wants to do it. We have made many attempts to avoid this lawsuit by offering a simple and low cost license agreement that would allow us to protect our trademarks that we already own, and allow Monster Mini Golf to use the name for their business. They refused each time.
Through their attempts to disparage us as a greedy corporate bully, we have been wrongly portrayed as a company focused on squashing small business, when the opposite is true. We are also a small business, and have survived for 30 years. This lawsuit admittedly has caused so much misguided ill will amongst our customers, that we have no choice but to give up on it, and along with it our rights to have a judge or jury decide this conflict.
So we are publicly declaring;
1) Monster has filed papers with the Federal Court to dismiss the lawsuit against Monster Mini Golf as of Friday, December 12, 2009. We will let the trademark office decide when they review their trademark application.
2) Monster will still owns the trademarks granted by the trademark office for which we offer a license for the use of them to Monster Mini Golf for a minimal royalty of $100 per month per franchise. Monster (us) will donate and match the royalty proceeds to the following charities that Monster has supported.
The Elf foundation; Creating Rooms of Magic:
http://www.elfsystems.org/partners.html
Seg4Vets: Segways for disabled veterans
http://www.draft.cc/draft3/Donations/Benefactors/tabid/113/Default.aspx
Monster Mini Golf will then have the ability to use and franchise the “monster†trademark and continue with their business, and we will have continued protection. This will save thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees and the court’s time. Everyone wins.
This lawsuit was never about the money, our requests were always minimal. It’s about the protection of our trademarks. It’s unfortunate for anyone who owns a trademark or patent, that the wrongful and disparaging remarks of a few can inhibit companies like ours from pursuing our right to legal process.
In this country, lawsuits are a method to resolve differences of opinion. The courts resolve disputes thousands of time each day. It is not always the bad guy suing the good guy. It’s asking the court to hear the both sides and make a decision. A judge or a jury determines ones right to trademark ownership. We believe that we would win this case, or we never would have filed it. This is far from a frivolous lawsuit, we have the prior trademarks to prove it.
For all of those who have supported us during this attack on our integrity, we thank you for your support. We apologize to everyone who may have been affected by our lawsuit with Monster Mini-Golf. We apologize to our loyal customers who may have been negatively impacted and to our retailers whose customers may have been affected by mis-information. We are sorry for all of the ill-will that has been generated on both sides.
For 30 years, we have prided ourselves on making the highest performance products in everything that we do. We have millions of happy customers. With economic conditions as they are, we need to focus on our core business. We will just keep producing the great high quality products for all to enjoy and hopefully Monster Mini Golf will get what they want one way or the other.
Thanks for lending your ear,
Noel Lee
The Head Monster
Founder and Owner of Monster
http://www.monstercable.com/monster_truth
I think people are mistaken. The lawsuits are once the companies try to trademark “Monster” by itself.
Don’t be naive: it’s all about business. Monster mini golf does not have the rights to use the word Monster which is a trademak of Monster Cable. The word Monster generates sales and strong branding but I don’t believe that Monster mini golf should use it if it’s illegal. There are people are Monster just like you and I and they want to protect their jobs by protecting their company’s name. It makes sense!! We may not like it but Monster is right when they sue Monster mini golf otherwise everybody is going to use this name for their business and Monster Cable’s efforts will be useless.