Blue Jean Cable Shows One Way To Respond To Overly Broad Patent Threats
from the show-me-the-infringement! dept
A few folks have been submitting the response letter sent by Blue Jean Cable's President to Monster Cable after Monster sent a threatening letter claiming that Blue Jean violated various Monster design patents and trademarks. While the response is a bit over the top, Blue Jean's Kurt Denke makes it clear that Monster's threat letter appears to be nothing more than a fishing expedition/bullying tactic and he won't take it. He responds to each claim, noting that Blue Jean doesn't appear to infringe at all, and asking for much greater detail in response, rather than simply being bullied into submission. Design patents are rather limited, but it looks like Monster is acting as if they're utility patents in an effort to scare off Blue Jean Cable, not expecting that the company's execs might understand the difference between the two.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: cables, patents
Companies: blue jean cable, monster cable
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Awesome !!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
monster cables
But Monster Cables are crap! the quality of the cable is no better than a radio shack cable... you're just paying 10x more for prettier plastics and a fat trademark.
Seriously.. THE CABLE DOESNT MATTER!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Monster vs Blue Jean Cable
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Actually the cable does matter...
Read some of the articles on bluejeanscable.com about HDMI cables, they explain quite a few of the issues that go into supporting the higher-end specs of HDMI.
That said, yeah, for the kinds of distance monster would have you buying cables for, the signal loss will be so negligable... and for digital, it'll rarely be enough to lose a bit, and error correction will compensate for that. I fully recommend buying decent cable (from bluejeans who will cut to length!) if you need to go 30-40ft, but for smaller lengths, usually any ordinary cable will do. (bluejeans do have some cheap hdmi ones tho, but you need to be willign to wait out shipping from washington state)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Actually the cable does matter...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Actually the cable does matter...
Brand doesn't make a difference but construction and materials do.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wow(2)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Scratch Monster Cables
Not that I ever bought Monster Cables anyway. After all, copper wire is copper wire, and the connectors either fit properly, or not. I certainly can't hear the difference between Monster and Radio Shack, and I suspect anybody who says he can is deluding himself (or herself) or just imagining things that aren't really there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Beautiful!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Beautiful!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That was
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wow
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
BJC is the best
Their talent, quality and knowledge is fantastic. Their prices are very reasonable and Though they are in Washington State and I am in Saint Paul, MN, I still get them within 2-3 days of my order!
I have always sworn by them and recommended them to others, but this letter makes me smile even more.
We love ya' Kurt!
~Mark Fawcett
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Glee!
I have a new hero for the week!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A Tax On The Foolish
For those of you making 6ft. runs of wire behind your stereo and TV components, you will NEVER perceive any difference in quality between Walmart AV rack wires and Monster. I know, some of you think I'm wrong, you DO notice the difference. Listen, just have your mom do a blind test on you. Cheap cables vs. Monster. If you can say which it is correctly at least seven times out of ten, let us know in the comments.
Stop spending your allowance on stupid cables.
I was at CES this January, and I see that Monster was huge there, and they were joined by lots of other "big wire" competitors. This market is growing. PT Barnum is right again.
Their lawsuit? What a joke! Putting more metal and plastic in a wire is patented? Patently useless, yes, but an obvious and stupid idea.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Suckers Like Me
"There's a sucker born every minute."
At least that's what Wikipedia says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There's_a_sucker_born_every_minute
But I'm not going to listen to Wikipedia! Certainly not where Brain Surgery or Hi-Fidelity is concerned:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080415/013346850.shtml
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Brilliant!
I miss hearing about people who stick by their principles, no matter what.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Brilliant!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lawyer?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
New Hero
I absolutely loved the letter, and it only gets better the more you read. It would have been priceless to see the faces and comments in the law office that got that letter back, because they just got their asses handed to them.
I hope Kurt files a lawsuit back at Monster Cables and attacks them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wow!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Thought you would like to know
First, my apologies for this being a "form letter" response; we have been swamped with e-mails of support and encouragement from every quarter and it's become impossible to respond to each one individually.
As my letter to Monster's counsel indicated, we believe Monster's threats to be completely baseless, and we are prepared, if Monster unwisely proceeds with a lawsuit, to fight it with passionate intensity. We are extremely
heartened by the public support and by the interest that people have shown in this situation.
We will be continuing to update the public with information about this if anything further develops.
Thanks,
Kurt Denke
Blue Jeans Cable
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Damn
"Owned!"
Not only does he let the lawyers know he's not going to be intimidated, he even points out how the way they worked is morally reprehensible and he knows it.
"Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it."
Could you throw the gauntlet on the table a bit more?
Kurt needs to be contacted by every company being bullied and asked to draft such letters.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Damn
Actually, I'm pretty sure this is a classic case of the gauntlet somehow missing the table and hitting monster in the teeth.
Go Kurt!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Thought you would like to know
You just gained a new customer.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Monster Cable Legal Goons
BTW it was never Monster Park ( or 3-Com Park ) that miserable stadium always was and always will be Candlestick Park.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]