"It is the end of the road for McDonald's. McCurry can use the prefix," said lawyer Sri Dev Nair who represented the family-owned restaurant, which serves up Malaysian favourites like tandoori chicken and fish masala.

"McCurry and McDonald's are two different businesses which sell different types of food and they have different customers," he said, rejecting McDonald's claim that the use of "Mc" in its name could cause confusion.

Supposedly, the name stands for "Malaysia Chicken Curry Restaurant."

Prediction for 2010: Any restaurants in Malaysia named Monster Curry are in trouble.

Malaysia's 'McCurry' beats McDonald's over trademark [Yahoo Finance]

(Photo: pinguino)

"We're lowering prices, due to the recession, but we're also increasing performance," says founder and "Head Monster" Noel Lee.

An 8' HDMI cable that used to cost $125 will now retail for $99. (For comparison's sake, an 8' HDMI cable at Monoprice.com goes for about $4.)

Monster would certainly like you to believe that their cables are worth the extra money, but it seemed like most experts interviewed by USAToday weren't buying it.

"Cables are enjoying percentages consumers would scream about if they knew the markup on them," says Richard Doherty, an independent analyst at Envisioneering Group.
...
"Monster used higher-quality products in the analog era to give you better sound, but as things went digital, it either works or it doesn't," he says. "Now there's an awful lot of $15 cables out there which would give you the exact same performance as Monster Cable."

Monster Cable lowers prices during recession [USAToday] (Thanks, Everyone!)

The quote's been pulled from the front page now, barely two hours after Engadget found out about it and posted an acceptable substitute quote that they're willing to stand behind ("Monster Cable sucks"), but we still think it's funny that Monster gave the go ahead on using an Engadget quote.

For reference, here's the text of the post they pulled the quote from:

You can't put velvet in these earcups and call 'em nice headphones! As Mr. Chappelle would likely attest, there are no better headphones in which to drop the beat into than Dr. Dre's "highly anticipated" Beats. The master of chronic himself has slapped his all-but-forgotten name onto a set of cans (which we spotted originally at CES), and is now ready to introduce 'em to the world. Starting on July 25th, the crunk-inducing headphones will be available exclusively at Apple and Best Buy (both online and in-store), though the buying experience would likely be way more gangsta if checking out at BeatsByDre.com. Still, for $349.95, we'd recommend looking at more respected names in sound, but if your street cred is sitting at rock bottom, you may have no other choice.

And here's the quote they created from it:

There are no better headphones in which to drop the beat into.

"Engadget endorses Monster Cable? Uh, hell no."

(Thanks to Miami Frost!)

Monster Cable demanded the transmission company turn over the name, and when the owners refused, Monster Cable slapped them with a lawsuit. According to Audioholics.com, which spoke to the owner of the transmission company, Monster Cable has made no counter offer or attempted to reach a settlement of any sort.

Maybe this is actually Monster Cable's marketing budget at work. If any publicity is good publicity, then these lawsuits keep the company in the news on a yearly basis—and since there's really no good reason to ever buy a Monster Cable based on actual qualities of the product, why not go for some outside-the-box advertising? Or maybe they're just gold-plated, high-definition jackasses who ride Segways around while they show off their customized Bentleys.

"Monster Cable Shifts Back Into Lawsuit Gear Against Monster Transmission " [Audioholics.com] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in, and M for the YouTube link!)
(Photo: ckelly/a>)

Two TVs are set beside each other along with a sign that says "See the Monster HDMI Difference." Trouble is, the "Monster set" (on the right) is connected to its source via an HDMI cable, while the "non-Monster set" (on the left) is connected via composite cable. As in, the lamest looking signal next to using an RF modulator.

Sketchy.

Monster "HDMI Difference" scam still kickin' in Fry's Electronics [Engadget]

Letter Written by Noel Lee to us:

Christina and Patrick,

On behalf of everyone who has been involved in the trademark disagreement between our two companies, let me say that we are glad to have come to an amicable meeting of the minds. I personally want to apologize to all for not having been directly involved in this dispute, and not have taken the opportunity to meet and talk to the both of you to understand the entire situation.

It’s amazing what happens when people talk without the filter of attorneys speaking for us. In our talks, I found the both of you to be very reasonable people that are easy to talk to, understand, and resolve our differences of opinion with.

Through the many emails and communications on line, clearly we have been made out to be the bad guy. It’s unfortunate some people feel this way, because we really feel the opposite. But as they say words are cheap and so with that in mind...

We will drop any opposition to the trademark of Monster Min Golf, as well as the lawsuit that we filed against you. In addition, we will cover your attorney’s fees so you are not burdened with them as you go forward in pursuing your business.

I will say that this is a landmark kind of situation, as public opinion wins over what is the right thing to do for trademark protection of a famous mark. We have made the decision that public opinion, and that of our valued customers is more important than the letter of the law that requires us to prevent the dilution of our mark risk losing it.

I’ve also learned that attorneys sometimes miss the human element of a situation, and that the law is the law, and frankly that are paid to interpret it for us as business people who are not as knowledgeable in these areas. It was a pleasure to be able to speak to both of you personally, and to understand each other as people, entrepreneurs, all in the same boat, working hard to grow and develop our businesses and provide value for our customers.

Although we can’t unwind the clock and we agree to disagree on some of the actions taken by both parties, there’s a lot of water under the bridge. Like everyone today, we have continued challenging economic times ahead of us. It’s time to focus on our businesses, our employees and their families and prepare for the times ahead.

I wish the best of luck to Monster Mini Golf in the future .

Noel
Founder, Monster Cable

Monster Cable / Monster Mini Golf Update!!! [monsterminigolf]

1. Monster Cable will cancel its lawsuit...
2. As long as MonsterMiniGolf pays $100 per month per franchise to MonsterCable
3. MonsterCable in turn will donate $100 per month per MonsterMiniGolf franchise to The Elf foundation or Creating Rooms of Magic, or Seg4Vets: Segways for disabled veterans .
4. Monster MiniGolf gets to keep being MonsterMinGolf
5. A bunch of bloviating about how Monster Cable is the real victim here.

More at MonsterMiniGolfTruth.com. (Thanks to Ian!)

PREVIOUSLY:
Tell Monster Cable To Stop Suing A Monster-Themed MiniGolf Park

Monster Cable Sues Monster MiniGolf For Trademark Infringement
Lawsuit: Monster Cable Thinks You Might Confuse Mini-Golf With Overpriced Cables

...just the latest target of Monster Cable's insane campaign to sue for trademark infringement anything that dares to have "Monster" in the name - you can email their ceo at nlee@monstercable.com or theheadmonster@monstercable.com...

...and tell him how you will never buy a Monster Cable again and you will tell everyone you know to never buy a Monster Cable. The co-founders of Monster Mini Golf, Patrick & Christina Vitagliano also say they have something juicy planned for CES, the world's biggest consumer electronics tradeshow that is like the SuperBowl for electronics companies. As Monster Mini Golf makes monster-themed Mini Golf parks and not USB-powered tape measures, I can only imagine it's some kind of anti-MonsterCable hilarious hijinx.

PREVIOUSLY:

Monster Cable Sues Monster MiniGolf For Trademark Infringement
Lawsuit: Monster Cable Thinks You Might Confuse Mini-Golf With Overpriced Cables

When you sue over trademark infringement, one of the biggest criterion for the validity of your suit is whether or not consumers will be confused about which brand is which. To help us decide, let's look at one item from the Monster MiniGolf FAQ:

Q: Does the entire place glow in the Dark?
A: Yes! (Except the bathrooms..that would be too weird.)

See? You totally thought we were talking about premium-priced audio cables there.

Monster MiniGolf is asking for $1 donations to help offset its legal costs, which so far are $100,000 and they predict will reach $250,000. If you make a donation and take your receipt to a Monster MiniGolf place, you will get $2 off one round, which are normally between $5.50 and $7.50 for 18 holes. You can donate through the eBay page they have set up, which explains more about their situation.

Help Me Fight a Bully! It's a Monster. Justice needed! [eBay] (Thanks to Johnny!)

Attorneys for Winthrop & Weinstine recently convinced Monster Cable that a product called "Monster Deer Block" would not cause confusion in the marketplace with its cable products.

There is a considerable difference, Winthrop attorneys argued, between a flavored salt and mineral lick designed to attract wild deer and Monster Cable's electric cable and connectors for wiring household electronics.

We're not so sure. They're just so similar. We'd like to thank Monster from keeping silly consumers from trying to plug vitamins for wild animals into their home theater systems. Imagine the mess.

Inside Track: A Monster dispute is licked
[Star-Tribune](Thanks, Tom!)

Bank of America:

"Can u say overdraft? Lets take billions from the poor every year and feel good about it!"

"I've been a Bank of America customer for about 3 years now and have not had any major issues with them at this point. But I know sooner or later they'll find their opportunity to screw me, I can't wait."

"Bank of America has be bad since they were founded. They invented the West Coast evil bank. They make Countrywide and WaMu look like amateurs."

"BoA is not just "a" bank, they're a bank with some of the least customer-friendly policies in America. Re-opening closed accounts then charging $35 for it? That's not a courtesy, that's fraud."

"BOA = Satan's Bank."

"To say nothing of BofA buying MBNA, then stealthily sending their credit card customers 8 different letters, all inconspicuous, all 10pp affairs where, buried in the fine print, BofA tries to make the credit card deals even MORE screwed than they were to begin with.
Things like, "If you wouldn't like your APR to go from 9% to 32% next month, send a snailmail letter with the following 4 pieces of information to this special address within the next week." Only buried on page 4 and written in 50 words of well-neigh incomprehensible legalese. And repeated for changing ave daily balance, binding arbitration, etc.

Evil!

On a different note, I have to crack up at the posters that say, "Since nothing personally happened to me, I'm going to ignore reams of factual data and vote for EvilCorp."

Since if nothing directly impacts them while they obliviously trudge thru their pale, sad life, it obviously doesn't exist.

Jeezus - develop you empathy muscles, guys: we're humans, not cockroaches."

"I find it hard to believe anyone still uses Bank of America for anything. I closed my accounts and tore up their visa card right after I heard they were giving mortgages to illegal aliens."

"My vote went to BoA because of the like 5 bucks I pay to them for ATM transactions. I fucking hate that on top of the random ATM fee, I have to pay BoA because they didn't have an ATM within like 20 miles. Fuck you BoA."

"BofA: Cash Deposits Post Immediately! After midnight. After we post debits. And bounce your checks. And take our fees."

"BoA for that stupid "we're gonna make lots of money" video. f them."

"Ugh, BofA is a complete joke. I switched to HSBC a year ago and I am very happy with my decision. BofA charges you death, and their high yield interest rate is a joke.

At least I can that the branch manager at my branch was awesome, and closing the account wasn't a hassle, except they charged me a $2 fee. "

"Band of Assholes is right. We briefly had a BOA credit card, but I quickly sized up this was a stupid move on my part and cancelled it. Got a relative in the business of cyber security at an international level and I asked her afterwards "what's up with BOA?" Without hesitation she said, "Besides PayPal, the least amount of interest and budget spent on securing their platform. Get Away From Them.""

"My BOA troubles started in a little state called Rhode Island. Pre-1984, the largest bank in RI was called Industrial National. In 1984, they change to Fleet. Now anybody in Rhode Island would tell you never bank with Fleet. Awful fees, etc.. etc..

Fleet in the early-mid 90's then buys Bank of Boston become FleetBoston which then buys Shawmut and host of whole other banks. And then finally gets bought out a few years back by BOA. Geez, I thought Fleet was bad after they took over my Bank of Boston (or was it BayBank account).

BOA made them (FleetBoston) seem like my local friendly credit union."

"Take that Band of Assholes! Raising that rate to 20.99% from my nice MBNA 7% - we'll see you in the Final Four of the Worst!! "

"Late to this particular voting party, but of course it's BofA.

Every time I would deposit a check, they would clear it in the branch only to put it back on hold at midnight. I escaped them by moving to a city where they're not around, but even then they held on to my relocation check for EIGHT business days!

PNC Bank has non-local checks cleared in 2... "

Monster Cable:

"Their entire business is based on lies about the superiority of their product and is then sold at very high prices to cement the illusion of higher quality."

"can't top trying to compare your component cables to diamond jewelry"

"Their markup is insane, and their cables aren't anything special above what you can get for a 1/3 of the price."

"My father bought a $200 Monster Cable brand power strip at Magnolia Hi-Fi a few years back. I tried to convince him why it was a bad idea, but the salesman hooked it up to some kind of meter to show the "noise" in the power between a standard power strip and the Monster one, and he was persuaded after being told that standard power would result in a worse picture."

"Monster conspires with every electronics retailer to rip off unsuspecting customers. We can avoid Monster, but that doesn't make what they do to everyone else right."

"They're as bad as the audiophiles for spreading nonsense and hokum about electronics."

"All I need to hate Monster Cable (although all the rest helps) is what I discovered when building a Monster Cable Demo Station when I worked for CC. The station had two speakers hooked up side by side and then to a DVD surround sound system with a switch to choose between the two and demo what the station called "Monster XRS Speaker Wire" or something against "Offbrand speaker wire."

Sure, the Monster sounded better... until you cracked open the back and found that there was about a 1 foot length of the Monster Cable wire running to one speaker and about 100 feet of the thread-thinnest, poorest-quality wire I have ever seen ziptied and sitting in a coil.

I'm not surprised at the misleading way Monster promotes their product because every company does the same thing, but it still amply bolsters what we all already know about this company. "

"Monster Cable's entire business revolves around a lie."

"I bought one of their "wireless" transmitters for my iPod so I can use it in my car, after 3 months the thing just fell apart. Talk about your shoddy merchandise. I will never buy a Monster Cable again."

"Just because someone is rich, doesn't mean they should buy overpriced products. Rich people can stay rich by saving their money, not blowing it."

"I voted Monster Cable, because they sue everybody"

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: US Air vs Microsoft, Time Warner Cable vs American Airlines, Time Warner Cable vs American Airlines, Home Depot vs Wellpoint, Wal-Mart vs Citibank, Capital One vs ATT, Sallie Mae vs eBay/Paypal, TransUnion vs Diebold, Best Buy vs CompUSA, DeBeers vs Verizon, Exxon vs United Airlines, Sony vs Ticketmaster, Comcast vs The American Arbitration Association

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]

Here's what our readers said when they nominated these two companies:

Gamestop:
"(ooh i fucking hate Gamestop...)"
"They sell opened games as brand new, mark up the price on most Nintendo DS games by 5$ (hello 34.99 for Professor Layton and the Curious Village, MSRP 29.99) not to mention selling tons of scratched up, used games for 5$ less than the new price of a game. Another thing they do is frequently sell pirated games, especially when it comes to Game Boy Advance games. They have no policy against checking for or selling pirated games, and the employees are not trained to check for pirated games. They do not check or clean games that are traded in, they just put them on the shelf as they get them, so when you buy a used game there, you are basically getting someone else's junk."

Monster Cable:
"Can we have a "worst consumer" category, so I can nominate the people who do business with paycheck lenders, buy Monster cables and those horrible Crocs?"
"Monster Cable. People do actually buy their products, they are actually overpriced and mostly worthless. But most importantly, they sue everyone who uses the dictionary word "monster". My favorite lawsuit? Suing Mike Shkolnik who sold stuffed monsters online in his "Monster Shop" at monster.biz"

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING:
Bank Of America vs Toys R' Us
Toshiba vs Microsoft
US Airways vs Washington Mutual
American Airlines vs Blockbuster
Time Warner Cable vs Radioshack
Wellpoint vs Charter Cable
Dell vs Home Depot
Sears vs Citibank
Wal-Mart vs TJMaxx
Mattel vs ATT
Capital One vs Video Professor
eBay/Paypal vs COX
Apple vs SallieMae
Diebold Vs Pfizer
MTV vs TransUnion
CompUSA vs DirecTV
Target vs Best Buy
Allstate vs Verizon
DeBeers vs 1800 flowers
Starbucks vs United Airlines
Exxon vs Crocs
Google Vs Sony
Ticketmaster vs Wachovia
Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association
Comcast vs Menu Foods

(Photo: Getty)

Kurt allowed Audioholics.com to reprint his entire response to Monster Cable. Here's our favorite part:

I have seen Monster Cable take untenable IP positions in various different scenarios in the past, and am generally familiar with what seems to be Monster Cable's modus operandi in these matters. I therefore think that it is important that, before closing, I make you aware of a few points.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1985, I spent nineteen years in litigation practice, with a focus upon federal litigation involving large damages and complex issues. My first seven years were spent primarily on the defense side, where I developed an intense frustration with insurance carriers who would settle meritless claims for nuisance value when the better long-term view would have been to fight against vexatious litigation as a matter of principle. In plaintiffs' practice, likewise, I was always a strong advocate of standing upon principle and taking cases all the way to judgment, even when substantial offers of settlement were on the table. I am "uncompromising" in the most literal sense of the word. If Monster Cable proceeds with litigation against me I will pursue the same merits-driven approach; 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. As for signing a licensing agreement for intellectual property which I have not infringed: that will not happen, under any circumstances, whether it makes economic sense or not.

I say this because my observation has been that Monster Cable typically operates in a hit-and-run fashion. Your client threatens litigation, expecting the victim to panic and plead for mercy; and what follows is a quickie negotiation session that ends with payment and a licensing agreement. Your client then uses this collection of licensing agreements to convince others under similar threat to accede to its demands. Let me be clear about this: there are only two ways for you to get anything out of me. You will either need to (1) convince me that I have infringed, or (2) obtain a final judgment to that effect from a court of competent jurisdiction. It may be that my inability to see the pragmatic value of settling frivolous claims is a deep character flaw, and I am sure a few of the insurance carriers for whom I have done work have seen it that way; but it is how I have done business for the last quarter-century and you are not going to change my mind. If you sue me, the case will go to judgment, and I will hold the court's attention upon the merits of your claims—or, to speak more precisely, the absence of merit from your claims—from start to finish. Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it.

I will also point out to you that if you do choose to undertake litigation, your "upside" is tremendously limited. If you somehow managed, despite the formidable obstacles in your way, to obtain a finding of infringement, and if you were successful at recovering a large licensing fee—say, ten cents per connector—as the measure of damages, your recovery to date would not reach four figures. On the downside, I will advance defenses which, if successful, will substantially undermine your future efforts to use these patents and marks to threaten others with these types of actions; as you are of course aware, it is easier today for your competitors to use collateral estoppel offensively than it ever has been before. Also, there is little doubt that making baseless claims of trade dress infringement and design patent infringement is an improper business tactic, which can give rise to unfair competition claims, and for a company of Monster's size, potential antitrust violations with treble damages and attorneys' fees.

I look forward to receiving the information requested and will review it promptly as soon as it is received.

Sincerely,

Kurt Denke