Patrick & Christina Vitagliano run a small chain of miniature golf courses in Rhode Island. The courses are all monster-themed, and the chain is aptly named Monster Mini Golf. The places are decorated with all sorts of scary and macabre looking things, and kids and adults alike delight in trying for a hole-in-one while zombies and other creatures look over their shoulders.
There are some scary things happening behind the scenes at Monster Mini Golf these days. Nope, not zombies, werewolves or vampires - but monsters of a different kind: lawyers.
Seems like the folks at Monster Cable, purveyors of over-priced audio cables, think they have the market cornered on any enterprise that has the word “Monster” in the name. They have a long-documented history of chasing down similar businesses (usually small ones) and suing them into oblivion, or getting them to settle and enter into a license agreement with them to continue to use a name with “Monster” in it.
Now most small businesses would probably have just folded to the pressure of an advancing army of corporate lawyers and changed the name - or at worst, entered into an expensive licensing agreement with Monster Cable. But the Vitagliano’s aren’t doing either of those things. Nope, they’re fighting back.
On their Web site, “Stop the Bully,” they update folks with the recent developments of their trials and tribulations against the force that is Monster Cable. They’ve just started a campaign on E-Bay to help them raise money for a legal defense fund that they will soon need to draw from when the lawsuit begins.
They’ve met with strong resistance from all parts of the Monster Cable empire. They tried mediation last month, but couldn’t even get Monster Cable’s CEO Noel Lee to drive 45 minutes and sit down with them. Monster Cable has a long and well documented history of crushing small businesses like Monster Mini Golf into the ground. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen this time.
What can you do about this?
Tell Monster Cable to lay off:
Monster Cable Products, Inc.
455 Valley Drive
Brisbane, CA 94005
Phone: 415-840-2000
CEO Noel Lee nlee@monstercable.com
Support Monster Mini Golf:
More Info and PayPal Donation Link
1 comment so far ↓
Thanks. I emailed them in support of your company.
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