Blue Jeans Cable to Donate Sales Profits for Monster Mini Golf Lawsuit

[KurtBJC]

Hey, Patrick: excellent rebuttal work on your part.

Let me point out something which I learned early in my practice of law. First, despite what people will often tell you, litigation rarely is in the "shades of grey" sort of thing; usually one side is plainly right, and the other is plainly wrong. Anybody skilled in litigation, therefore, knows that if he's right, the objective is to simplify and clarify the facts so that the correctness of his position can be readily understood.

The flip side, of course, is that if you're wrong, confusion is your friend. It's a good idea, if you're wrong and you have to explain yourself, to barf out sixteen pages of largely irrelevant material in the hopes of confusing the reader. This asinine document you have received is the horrible screech of a lawsuit that has gone so badly for its instigator that there is nothing left to do but try to befuddle everyone familiar with it to the point that they'll throw up their hands and say, "I dunno. Monster Cable could be right, I guess. I'm no lawyer." Bear in mind that in this rhetorical battle, your job is to fight needless complexity with clear, simple and correct facts and argument. You have obviously made them squeal in pain; this document is a desperate last-ditch effort to justify the unjustifiable, and when this does not work they will have to face the fact that they're going to lose this litigation. They need to file for a voluntary dismissal because it's the best result they're likely to get.

Keep up the pressure. Bullies may not always be cowards, as I was so often told when I was a kid, but they do understand what it means to have someone punch back.

Kurt
Blue Jeans Cable

 

[MonsterMiniGolf]

One more thing....

Thanks Kurt,
and one important thing I wanted to add to his "We want to end this lawsuit as much as anyone" post.....
Noel,
You say you "Want to end this lawsuit as much as anyone", it's quite simple actually, end it.
Let us not forget, YOU are attacking, WE are defending. It's easy for the attacker to suggest that his prey simply stop defending themselves, but that's a bit lopsided. You hold all the cards here. You want it to end? Stop attacking.
-Patrick Vitagliano

 

[TLS Guy]

The Head Monster responds

You are right about that! It's a long one. I received this Email today from the Head Monster and the Monster lawyers.

Here is my reply: -

Dear Head Monster,

Thank you for the courtesy of your reply concerning my objections to your immoral business practices.

I'm not impressed at all with your arguments, those of your legal counsel, or any of the others trying to protect names of common nouns, such as apples, virgins, bays and monsters.

We have here just one of the many problems driving our nation to ruin. Lawyers are the very scum of the Earth, and here is just one of many reasons why.

Obviously one of the first items of business for the next administration and congress is to stop this racket. Your whole argument flies in the face of the common prudent man response.

Now I ask you, if I have an apple orchard, and call my apple growing business the Oregon's Rosiest Apples, who in the hell but a lunatic half wit is going to confuse my company with a computer company?

It is the same with these sports companies. You only got these sports companies with Monster in their name to come under your umbrella by intimidation and fear. No one is going to confuse any sporting company with a cable company.

Obviously there needs to a drastic change in law. I will make my representatives aware of this nonsense.

Clearly this is one more chink combining with others too numerous to count, driving us to ruin. Your position is immoral which ever way you slice it. It is immorality that is at the bottom of the pickle we find ourselves in. Your activities and those of others you site are good examples.

This sort of nonsense just has to be stopped, or there will be revolution in the air.
Yours Truly, Mark Carter MD

 

[MonsterMiniGolf]

Definition:

I almost forgot to point out what could be the creepiest part of Noel's 16 page personal response......where he signs the letter,

"Monstrously Yours",

Noel Lee

I looked up the word Monster in the dictionary, and among other things, here is a cut and paste of some of the definitions I found....

freak: a person or animal that is markedly unusual or deformed
a cruel wicked and inhuman person
(medicine) a grossly malformed and usually nonviable fetus

We use the word Monster descriptively, to describe the hideous beasts that inhabit our facilities.

Noel (The self titled "Head Monster") uses the word......to describe himself.

Does this strike anyone else as some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy?

-Patrick Vitagliano

 

[jinjuku]

Interesting...

I just spoke with David Tognotti.

In the course of speaking with him about MMG and line item 11 of his response (about frivolous suites) I mentioned that if they didn't file frivolous suites, why did is there no action against Kurt Denke / BJC.

His response: Who said we were finished with BJC?

David said there has been further correspondence with Kurt that they aren't talking about.

Thought you would like to know.

 

[MonsterMiniGolf]

You KNOW David Tognotti?
-Patrick

 

[jinjuku]

You KNOW David Tognotti?
-Patrick

Nope, called him on a lark. He is as cool and composed as they come. They honestly do believe that their trade name is under threat.

From reading between the lines: it is MC's belief that between the jury selection process, the orders that the judge will give to the jury, that the law will come down on their side.

Basically that they have Monster 'what ever' plastered on a bunch of stuff (*just not cables) and that they have to defend their mark.

They also are going to try and paint you with a brush that you are a national company and a franchiser making money hand over fist. He said you are charging $300K for a franchise (build out, permits, zoning, contractors etc...).

I don't believe Mr. Tognotti realizes how much it costs to refurbish a 16,000 to 20,000 square foot facility. I am probably on the low end as to the sq footage it takes to run an indoor minigolf. Electrical and HVAC alone has to be expensive.

Anyways, what you guys make/charge has nothing material to do with the perceived notion of dilution. I have no idea why the money you make with Monster Mini Golf has to do with trade mark. If they are trying to build an argument that using the word Monster is somehow piggy backing on their success, they are truly delusional.

The call was congenial and he gave me a solid 10 minutes of his attention. To that I will say a very heart felt Thank You.

 

[KurtBJC]

David said there has been further correspondence with Kurt that they aren't talking about.

Now, that's very odd. No, there has been no such correspondence. Why he would say that is an interesting mystery, however.

Kurt
Blue Jeans Cable

 

[MonsterMiniGolf]

I'm not sure they actually "Believe" it, but it IS enough of a grey area to have gotten this far.
Sadly, most of the names that they do indeed own, are names that they forced out of the hands of their original owners, but they still own them. Each name they force a weaker company to give up, is one more name added to their growing stable, making it easier and easier each time to do it to the next company. They are essentially building (and successfully, I might add) a MASSIVE wall of monster brands that is figuratively held together by the blood of the weak.
As for our finances, they are all a matter of public record, as required by the FTC. I explained them in detail earlier in this post, but you are correct, those estimates largely represent monies paid to contractors in regards to building out their space before we even arrive, not to us.

Our opinion is that if there were truly a likelihood of confusion, then the USPTO would not have granted our marks in the first place. We believe that in court, the judge and/or jury will uphold the USPTO's original decision, and we will win this case.
If Mr Tognotti has any point, it is that this case isn't a black and white slam dunk for us, they do make a somewhat credible case for loose similarities between MMG, and a handful of the other names they took from their original owners.
We will stay the course, and let the courts decide.
-Patrick Vitagliano

 

[KurtBJC]

If Mr Tognotti has any point, it is that this case isn't a black and white slam dunk for us....

Patrick, I think that you are giving Tognotti too much here.

I never liked the term "slam dunk" because it's possible to lose litigation for reasons you don't anticipate. But on the merits, your case is all black and white. There is an unfortunate sort of brain-softening effect that the chat of lawyers has--serious-sounding, intelligent-sounding people droning on about ludicrous things has a way of making those ludicrous things sound reasonable. When you are a participant in litigation you must lift your head above the sleepy grey swirl of lawyer talk. You must remember that you are absolutely right, and they are absolutely wrong, and the grey fuzzy talk is the way that people who are simply wrong have of making the whole thing seem more shapeless and indefinite than it really is. The only relevance of that sort of thing is that you must use your own facts and reasoning to cut through it or sail over or under it. When other people are soft and indefinite, you need clarity of vision and purpose.

When people say that litigation is Kafkaesque, I always say it's more Brechtian--highly ritualized, and highly absurd. Sing loudly.

And defense is an active, pushy, challenging game. Never let yourself fall into the habit of merely responding.

Kurt
Blue Jeans Cable

 

[j_garcia]

We're a small, family owned company

Hey, so is the MAFIA.

Small company - staff of 500.

That's not really a small company. What does that boil down to? 400 lawyers and some staff? Of course a bully isn't going to ADMIT to being a bully DUH.

Trade name under threat? Who is this guy Howard Hughes?

Something tells me they make enough off of royalties and licensing of the name now that they could probably just stop making cables...hey there's an idea.

 

[MonsterMiniGolf]

Yeah, that was amusing, especially in the very same letter that they tried to paint US as the corporate giants.
I am currently sitting in our office, looking at our ENTIRE staff of five people.
I wonder if he's even MET the majority of his 500-member "family"?
-Patrick Vitagliano

 

[Nemo128]

My porn name was going to be Monster C*ck. Now I wish I had gone into porn, just so Noel Lee could sue me.

Opening statement: "Ladies and gentleman of the jury, the distinction between Monster C*ck and Monster Cable is very unclear. Both entities f*ck people constantly, so maybe one can be confused for the other. The significant difference is, people ENJOY getting f*cked by Monster C*ck!"

 

[sitting_duck]

Maybe its me

Does this guy really know what he is doing to his company? Search monster cable. You will find his website. After that, pretty much negative stuff about the company. Someone even posted trash in the forums section on HIS website.

 

[MonsterMiniGolf]

New Press!

Got some new press!

The World Trademark Review in London published a brief this morning, here is the link!

http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/daily/Detail.aspx?g=ca80519d-73a7-48f8-9fbb-cd070a1c018f

-Patrick Vitagliano

 

[Nemo128]

Man, if I was rich, I would throw whatever I had to into the fray to crush Noel Lee's corporate bullying forever.

 

[MonsterMiniGolf]

Wait, there's more....

I was surfing around this morning, through the seemingly neverending information available on Monster Cable's long history of controversy, and I found these two sites that I thought were worth mentioning.

http://boycottmonster.org/endorsers.php (the forum edited the title here, but I believe the link does work)

http://monstercableworkers.blogspot.com

It really is a vast sea of negative information that they seem to have accumulated over the years, and the internet seems to be making the world just a little bit smaller.
As always, thank you for all of your support, and please keep spreading the word. Together, our collective little voices are actually amounting to a very big voice, and we ARE making a difference!
-Patrick

 

[KurtBJC]

Torches and Pitchforks Sale Extended

Hey, all: just to let you know, we're extending the Torches and Pitchforks Sale beyond the original 12/15 expiration date. I'm not sure just how long we'll run it; but when we stop, we'll take the page down. Here's the link:

Torches and Pitchforks Sale

Kurt
Blue Jeans Cable

 

[Kn9Sly]

Go BJC, spread that word. I'm lighting my torches and handing out instruments of destruction. (Okay, I'm typing on my keyboard, but still)

 

[Shock]

My porn name was going to be Monster C*ck. Now I wish I had gone into porn, just so Noel Lee could sue me.

Opening statement: "Ladies and gentleman of the jury, the distinction between Monster C*ck and Monster Cable is very unclear. Both entities f*ck people constantly, so maybe one can be confused for the other. The significant difference is, people ENJOY getting f*cked by Monster C*ck!"

I laughed so hard a little pee came out.