Monster Cable Bully

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Hate Bullies? Can you help?

Here's the story……

We are a Rhode Island based Children’s / Family Entertainment Center called Monster Mini Golf. Our concept, (Indoor Glow-in-the-Dark Monster themed Mini Golf) was originally created because we wanted to create something that was less expensive for a family to do than go to the movies.

We are a fun, wholesome company and one of the few things left in our ever growing technological era that all ages can play together.

My husband and I built the first course literally with our hands...We had no money and lived on Peanut Butter sandwiches to make ends meet while building and creating this concept.

Shortly after we opened, our crazy little idea became a big hit and were afraid that someone with millions of dollars was going to take our idea and run with it, so we thought why not franchise our concept? Then we learned that it cost over $100K to do that…so instead of giving up, we gave up our home and lived literally on the floor of our office to save the money necessary to franchise. We were homeless for almost a year but we believed in our concept. Long story short....Today we have 23 Franchises and all are Mom & Pop owner operated.

BUT...one man is destined to crush what we have built. He is the founder of Monster Cable Inc. (a company that makes Audio cables) and he’s suing us for “Trademark Infringement”.

In a nutshell, trademark infringement is based solely on “Likelihood of Confusion”, or essentially, “could the average consumer be confused between the two?”. The answer is no, as decided by the Patent and Trademark Office when they granted our trademarks, but Monster Cable Inc filed an opposition against that decision, and sued us.

To this day, this one man has opposed approx 400 companies...and it doesn’t look like he EVER intends to stop. This is the true meaning of Corporate Bully.

Their tactic is to run the smaller companies out of money, and force them into a settlement where they surrender their name to Monster Cable Inc, who then licenses it back to them for a fee. Yes, so then we would be paying him for a concept and business we created and have worked very hard for! It is essentially extortion, but sadly, it is cheaper than going to trial, which can be crippling to small businesses like ours.

Unlike the 414 companies he has forced into settlement by bleeding them dry…. we have decided to continue on and fight the good fight. We have chosen to stand up for anyone who has ever been bullied, picked on, abused, or otherwise forced into an unfair or unjust situation by a bigger, stronger, (or in this case, richer) opponent.

Each small business that was forced to sign over their name is one more brick in the massive Monster Cable Inc wall, held together by the blood of those crushed beneath their corporate wheels. It is very very sad.

So far our legal fees are well over $100,000. (And counting) and will likely reach $250,000 when all is said and done. No wonder why 400 companies have waived the white flag!! 250K is the cost of “Winning”!! We need your help, we cannot afford to do it alone. Wondering if this is real or not...just google Monster Mini Golf and Cable. Or visit audioholics web site and you will also read about many other cases there as well.

What we are selling is a “Piece” of our legal defense and a small slice of Justice to you for $1. Yep, just a buck....and as Sally Struthers once said, that's less than a cup of coffee! Geez...at Starbucks, it wouldn't even buy you that!

In return for your gracious purchase, you will receive a heartfelt “Thank You” from us and the knowledge that you have helped defeat a corporate bully who has been abusing the legal system for years! And, if you print your paypal receipt and take it to any Monster Mini Golf location, we'll take $2 Off a round of Mini Golf! (that's double your money back! Reg price for 18 holes is between $5.50-$7.50)

If you feel strongly about our “David Vs Goliath” story, and can give more, please do. If you feel strongly about it, but cannot afford to give, you can still help…..

Simply spread the word about our little fight, and help us reach as many people as humanly possible.

Thank You For Your Support!

-Patrick & Christina Vitagliano

(Husband and Wife team)

Co-Founders of Monster Mini Golf

monsterminigolf.com

Below is just one paragraph from another company (small business) that he also opposed…

We've heard the U.S. Trademark Office had to dedicate an entire room for Monster Cables files. It appears most companies drop their name or sign the license agreement for lack of adequate legal defense and financial resources. The larger companies with unlimited legal funds have "secret" settlements, probably just dropped cases but kept off the record so future Oppositions will not see what happened. It's easy for Monster Cable to take advantage of small entrepreneurs with limited experience in Trademark laws, Monster Cable claims to own hundreds of products under the monster name. It's sad that all those hard working people pay someone like Noel Lee for their business. The Head Monster says he's not after the money even though we were told by his lawyer (which he proudly refers to as..the slimiest of all slime) the usual price of the license agreement is $3,000 to $5,000. The lawyer told us come up with money and make our payment out to Monster Cable. And then to keep our name, we would have to pay a percentage of what we make. "The Head Monster" says he’s not after money; so we guess to him our small profits would not be making money.

Renewals are required and we wonder how much that would be after your business has grown and they control your name under their "monster" license.

If you need more info:

Just google Monster Cable law suits, it’s endless and very sad.

Further reading -

http://www.audioholics.com/news/edit...r-call-to-arms

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Monster Call to Arms
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by Tom Andry — last modified December 02, 2008 08:09
Monster Call to Arms

You've asked for it, you've demanded it, you've wished over and over someone would do it - well, it looks like your Christmas wish is coming through this year. Monster Cable has had a long history of suing or threatening to sue any and all businesses with the word "monster" anywhere near them. We've heard stories of used clothing stores, TV shows, baseball teams and more. Recently, Blue Jeans Cable scared them off with a well worded letter (it sometimes pays if your former profession was lawyer). Patrick & Christina Vitagiliano, founders of Monster Entertainment/Monster Mini Golf, have found themselves in the sights of the litigation team of the monster cable manufacturer. The problem? They are just too sweet of a target.

The modus operandi of Monster Cable seems to be threaten a suit, suggest a settlement where they pay Monster something substantial but less than the cost of fighting the suit, and then move on to the next victim. Surely, the $80,000 they suggested would settle this matter with Monster Entertainment/Monster Mini Golf is less than the fight so far (with more expenses on the way). They dress this up as a "one time royalty fee" but let's call it what it is - extortion. Monster Entertainment/Monster Mini Golf is the perfect target for a company like Monster Cable. They are big enough to have capital but not so large as to be able to effectively mount a resistance.

Or so they thought.

Patrick & Christina Vitagliano (the owners) aren't backing down. They've already spent enough in legal fees and other expenses to cover what Monster is asking. But for them, it isn't about the money - it's about the principle. And frankly, we here at Audioholics agree. Monster Cable doesn't own the word monster. No one walks into Monster Mini Golf and asks why they can't buy cables there. If this is something you think is just good business - fine. We've got lots of articles about speakers, amps, and debunking esoteric cables for you to read. But if you think that it is about time someone stood up for the little guy, took on the corporate Goliath, then listen to the plight of Monster Entertainment/Monster Mini Golf detailed below.

Members of our forum have already set up a facebook page about it.

Hi all,

Patrick & Christina Vitagliano (The founders of Monster Entertainment/Monster Mini Golf) here, with an update on how the lawsuit is going. As stated previously, we flew out to CA a few weeks back in an attempt to get both parties together with an impartial mediator, to try and garner an amicable settlement in lieu of going to trial. We did respectfully request that Noel Lee be present at mediation, since we all flew 3,500 miles to be there, and his office is only 45 minutes away but, as expected, he didn't show.

While we are not permitted to disclose ANY of the actual details of mediation, we are permitted to "officially" say that mediation failed. The two parties were much too far apart to find middle ground, and we are proceeding to trial.

Before doing so, Christina (in one last effort to reach the elusive Mr. Lee on a "human" level) sent him a letter asking that he take a few minutes to speak face to face, without lawyers, and simply talk this out. She had requested a personal response by Thanksgiving. As expected, instead of responding personally, we got an email from Mr. Tognotti (Monster Cable's in-house counsel) who informed us that Mr. Lee was traveling, but we could speak with legal instead if we wished. We did not wish. While we didn't think it'd work, we just wanted to see if Noel Lee would step up to the plate, or hide behind his lawyers. He did the latter.

So now....it's on to trial!

As you might expect, tt's going to take an army to defeat these deep-pocketed bullies. But in the meantime what we are going to need here is a call to arms! To everyone in the audio community and beyond, anyone who has ever been bullied, strong armed, or otherwise taken advantage of to step up and say "Enough is Enough!" We'll need YOUR help to stop them, by making this their most PUBLIC fight yet! Anyone who has a blog, post, forum, website, facebook, myspace, etc.....or ANY other public forum.....WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please contact us directly at 401-454-8100, or from our website at www.monsterminigolf.com to get involved and help us spread the word. We are putting up the money for our own defense, but we cannot win this without a huge public outcry behind us. Please contact us to help us get this thing some national attention!

We will keep you updated as to the progress of this ridiculous and frivolous litigation. In the meantime, we thank you for your continued interest and support in this matter.

Sincerely,

Christina and Patrick Vitagliano
Co-Founders of Monster Mini Golf