Monster Cable is trying to steal our domain name!

Yesterday and today our truck was at Monster Park 49er’s game and today at the Monster Cable's Corporate Headquarters in San Francisco. Our sign truck will be carrying the sign below throughout the Bay Area. We were at Monster park since Monster Cable just closed the deal and paid 24 million to get naming rights for the Public Park.

Background:
Monster Cable has filed a Federal Lawsuit to take over http://www.Monstervintage.com. Attorney’s for Monster Cable reported to the court fraudulent signatures to sneak thru the Federal Court and take over Monstervintage.com putting us out of business and stealing our domain name.
Why don’t they just offer to buy Monstervintage.com? They would rather pay huge Lawyer fees and “TAKE IT”.

"It is important that trademarks not be transformed from rights against unfair competition to rights to control language."
- Mark Lemley, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley
Below are some examples of how outrageous this Federal Case. It is very difficult for a small business to go up against such a huge company in Federal Court Trademark Cases and previous Court Cases show most people have just abandoned their name because they could not financially fight to keep their domain names using the common word “monster”. Should we be careful in our homes and not say the word “monster” for fear of infringing on Monster Cables big headed owner and attorneys trying to control our language?
Research from Internet 2002
Number of live registered trademarks for the word “monster” 20
Number of live registered trademarks containing the word “monster” 471

Number of domain names containing the word “monster” (domainsurfer.com) 6,619
Number of domain names that start with the word “monster” (domainsurfer.com) 3,303

Number of hits from a search for “monster” on google.com 5,950,000
Number of hits from a search for “monster cable” on google.com

about 126,000
Number of hits from a search for “monster shop” without “monster cable” on google.com 768
Number of hits from a search for “monster shop” with “monster cable” on google.com 1

Number of books on BarnesandNoble.com resulting from a search for “monster” 5,734
Number of books on BarnesandNoble.com about Monster Cable Products Inc 0

Number of movies with “monster” in the title as per IMDB.com 285
Number of movies with “monster” in the plot description as per IMDB.com 438
Number of movies with “monster” as a keyword as per IMDB.com 723
Number of movies about Monster Cable Products Inc 0

Number of times “monster” appears in the script for Young Frankenstein 185
Number of times Monster Cable Products Inc is referenced in the script for Young Frankenstein 0

Number of children who imagined there was a monster under the bed probably millions
Number of children who imagined there was an audio interconnect cable under the bed probably none

Monstervintage.com’s letter to Monster Cable in response to Federal Lawsuit
Monster Cable V. Monstervintage.com United States District Court Case #C 04-2778 WDB
Monstervintage.com
Cathy West
PO Box 679
Camas WA 98607
info [at] monstervintage.com

Sunday, October 10, 2004

LaRiviere Grubman & Payne
19 Upper Ragsdale Dr
Suite 200
PO Box 3140
Monterey CA 93942
831-649-8800

RE: Monster Cable V. Monstervintage.com USDC Case #C 04-2778 WDB

To All Concerned:
Monstervintage.com is a very small cottage business that sells classic All American used vintage clothing. Monstervintage.com uses the term monster as an ordinary generic word in common use for huge, big & tall, broad, extensive, large and wide and out of the ordinary. Monster is also known to the world as the well loved classic creatures (Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, etc). We chose the word Monster to represent “large selection, enormous, gargantuan”. Monster Cable’s website states “Lee chose the name “Monster” because it sounded strong and powerful”. Monstervintage.com does not market, produce or sell any new items; we recycle used Vintage clothing. How does this threaten an over 300 Million dollar a year company?
Monstervintage.com considers Monster Cable’s tactics as Strong-arming, Harassment and Bullying and attempt to extort for money.
Monstervintage.com does not sell any Audio or Video cables, connectors or electrical wires or advertise to sell wire or cable. Monster Cable electronic customers would not think they are at Monster Cable’s website while looking at 1950’s swing dresses or Letterman’s jackets and there is No confusion except for the Owner & Attorney over legalized attempt to strong arm Monstervintage.com. Our data base research shows no one has ever looked up Monster Cable on the Monstervintage.com website.
The following applies and we demand you drop this Extortionist style Court Case #C 04-2778 WDB immediately.
1. Not in the same market or trade channels
2. No likelihood of confusion of used vintage clothing to electrical cables, cabling and electronic components or any kind of New Monster Cable clothing
3. In no way does Monstervintage.com dilute Monster Cable registered and unregistered “Monster” marks
4. The look and feel of the Monstervintage.com website does not make customers feel they are at MonsterCable.com. NO Confusion. NO conflict. NO Infringement.

Of course you already know all of this because you have an enormous amount of experience with going after businesses & people using the word Monster in their name; according to the Daily Journal Extra over 1600. “Up to twenty five on going court cases at all times and what’s one more“ said David Tognotti, General Counsel for Monster Cable in a phone conversation.
A student at Pacific Northwest College of Art designed the MV of the Monstervintage.com logo. Monster Cable’s “M” is split with an opening down the middle. Monstervintage.com’s “M” does not stand-alone but is connected with the V for vintage with some blocking and shading. Monster Cable’s sign in Brisbane has a single M with two curved C’s following behind and is not connected, as is the trademark of the MC Monster Cable logo.
Monstervintage.com is willing to make some changes to the “MV” logo with immediate dismissal of all Court Complaints.
In the event that Monster Cable wants to continue with this strong-arm tactic toward an American small Entrepreneur, Monstervintage.com we will be forced to take action and seek as much local, national and international publicity as imaginable. Since Monstervintage.com is so miniscule compared to Monster Cable we cannot hire an expensive Patent & Trademark attorney but we can commit to a full time campaign to seek monstrous News coverage and Internet pages with all the Monster Cable information compiled together. (News reporters love this because they don’t have to do any of the work; it’s done for them).
IF Monster Cable continues with Court Case #C 04-2778 WDB, Monstervintage.com will be forced to do the following with the support of our customer base, friends, family and volunteers:
1. A sign with very large lettering on a 25 ft Ryder truck letting the citizens of San Francisco and surrounding area know what Monster Cable does to the small business guy (there will also be flyers with all the Bully tactics of Monster Cable and copies of the fraudulent underhanded paperwork that the attorneys used) The large Sign truck will cover city centers, main streets and populated areas including in front of Monster Cable’s main office in Brisban. Minimum wage driver 8 hours a day 40 hours a week cheaper than an Attorney’s 1 hour fee. See Attachment
2. Submit HTML website pages to Major Search Engines with links to all the Monster Cable bullying law suits, strong arming small businesses that cannot financially fight Monster Cable Lawyers; this will include links to public documented court cases.
3. Submit to all the major search engines the HTML pages to get our (and others who have already been strong-armed) stories published on the internet
4. Send out bulk emails to our customer base of 10,000 strong urging them to protest and stop buying and supporting companies that sell Monster Cable products. In addition, send the information by email to a list focused to Audiophile and Video piles chats, news boards, message boards and customers. 40 hours a week x minimum wage cheaper than a 1 hour Attorneys fee.
5. Monstervintage.com will dedicate the front page with 2000 visits a day to the story of Monster Cable Strong-Arms Monstervintage.com. And about the demands to pay $1000.00 and 1% of our business and to sign a license to use the dictionary word Monster. How many other companies have you exhorted to collect money from and how many lives have been devastated by this Monster Cable Man and high priced lawyers?
6. Pursue getting newspaper editorials such as, Willamette Weekly Newspaper in Portland, Oregon that does a “Rogue of the Week” story about Monster Cable strong-arming, bullying and harassing. As well as any other newspapers we can get, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angels, New York, New Jersey and other high-populated areas.
7. Write letters to Television talk shows, News stations, music and talk radio shows with our story. A minority woman business owner I will aim at Oprha, Dateline, Houston’s Marvin Zindler and others.
8. Post messages on internet News boards, chat rooms, blogs, ezines and message boards with links to the Monster Cable Strong Arms Small Entrepreneur that recycles American Vintage Clothing story, which by the way the Music Industry loves vintage clothing!.
9. Turn on live monster domain names such as: monstercable-sucks.com, monstercablecomplaints.com, monstercable-strongarms.com, the possibilities are really endless.
10. Contact every family and company you have bullied and join together to fight Monster Cable and seek damages. Research shows a multitude of companies that obviously could not afford to fight Corporate Lawyers alone.
11. Post Monstervintage.com’s comments on Search Engine website reviews and company review sites.
12. Enter negative Ratings on Monster Cable, eopinion, complaints. COM, Amazon.com and Internet rating sites that Monster Cable strong arms minority woman business owner that Recycles classic American clothing. Our opinion of Monster Cable is extremely bad!
13. Contact Women’s Business Advocacy groups for support
14. Set up an information booth at National Consumer Electronic Shows
15. Stay totally within the law because everything is factual information.
16. In the event that Monster Cable chooses to continue with this attack we will request a Jury Trial and let a Jury decide if we dilute the dictionary word MONSTER.
In addition, we are going to the California Bar association and file a complaint about the dirty fraudulent paper filing on the Certified Postal receipt by Monster Cable’s lawyers that filed false documents with the court claiming to have a signature when they did Not! Is this Fraud?
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.
We expect to receive a notice letter on or before October 1, 2004.
Please seriously note that once we start our Campaign with the Search Engines No amount of money can remove it one it has been submitted.
Sincerely,
Monstervintage.com
Cathy West
Victor Petrucci
Cc:
Noel Lee, Founder-Owner
Irene Baran, Chief Operating Officer
Daniel Graham, PR Monster
David Tognotti, General Counsel
Taylor Norrish, Internet Marketing Group Manager
Please show us support and email Monster Cable employees, below is Monster Cable’s contact information:
CONTACT:
Monster Cable Products, Inc.
455 Valley Drive
Brisbane, CA 94005
415-840-2000
David Tognotti, General Counsel
legal [at] monstercable.com
Irene Baran, Chief Operating Officer
iebaran [at] monstercable.com
Taylor Norrish, Internet Marketing Group Manager
tnorrish [at] monstercable.com
Press Contact:
Charles Leib, PR Monster
cleib [at] monstercable.com
Phone: (602) 300-0900
Elizabeth Chidester, International Specialist
echidester [at] monstercable.com
Paul Lyons, Webmaster
plyons [at] monstercable.com


Monster Cable cases:
Cases with “Monster Cable Products” as either plaintiff or defendant.

Thank you for your time very much!
If you have any questions please let us know.