Below the Din

Blue Jeans Cable president Kurt Denke’s response to a suit filed by Monster Cable, should make anyone who has ever read about a pure-cheese IP lawsuit shake their head in disgust stand up and say, “Hell, yeah!”

A few weeks ago, Monster Cable, who purportedly never met a lawsuit it didn’t like, filed suit against Blue Grass Cable over connecters BGC used in their Tartan line of cables.

Little did Monster Cable’s lawyers know that Denke is a lawyer himself and was just itchin’ for a good fight. Audioholics.com (referred to me by Slashdot and The Culture of Ownership) posted Denke’s nearly-3,300 word reply, in which he attacks their “hit-and run” style of litigation, their assertion that they own patents to things that are basic concepts and physical requirements of cabling, and most of all, their lack of information to back their claim.

Here are some of the highlights:

If your view of Exhibit B is that it is to be construed broadly enough as to encompass the Tartan connector, it is very hard to imagine that there is such a thing as a solder-assembly style RCA plug which is not similarly, in your view, encompassed by this patent.   And, needless to say, it is very hard to imagine that any court would ever adopt such a view of the patent’s scope; if you file on this sort of basis, you are in Rule 11 frivolous-claim territory.

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.

.  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.

It is well worth reading the entire letter if stands like this appeal to you. It’s better than watching the AV club president beat up the starting quarterback.

Unfortunately I don’t anticipate needing any cables in the near future, but the next time such a need arises, I may very well look up Blue Jeans Cable.