Patent Troll Put Aside - Blue Jeans Cable Strikes Back - Response to Monster Cable
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
In a letter that is printed as a part of this story, lue Jeans Cable Strikes Back - Response to Monster Cable, the CEO of Blue Jeans Cable, Kurt Denke, provides an extremely effective response to Monster Cable’s claims of patent infringement. Writing in a somewhat self-deprecating, at times belligerent, acerbic, but mostly sarcastic tone, Denke points out some of the most ridiculous excesses of the current patent system.
“Dear Monster Lawyers,” Denki begins
“Let me begin by stating, without equivocation, that I have no interest whatsoever in infringing upon any intellectual property belonging to Monster Cable. Indeed, the less my customers think my products resemble Monster’s, in form or in function, the better.”
…
While using the intellectual fervor and humor reminiscent of Pirate Bay, this letter debunks the vaguely-worded patent infringement and trademark claim put forward by Monster Cable. I’ll let the letter speak for itself. It does the topic more justice than I ever could. It certainly helps that Denki practiced law prior to his current position. But it makes me wonder why companies never appear to fight these frivolous claims and settle before the claims could be verified. I am sure attorneys have a lot to do with that.
Politicians–especially Republicans–are quite eager to reform the tort system. They never want to look at the corporate structures. The problems that run rampant in the patent system alone costs corporations, and consumers in turn in the form of price increases, millions (if not billions) of dollars each year.
But the reform of the patent system whose sole, unstated purpose arguably has become to collect fees so that the government can run its wars would take political courage. It would also take “corporate leadership” to actually recognize the radical changes
that are needed. Like the open source movement, a well-formed patent and trademark system would ultimately help businesses a great deal by removing the choke-hold of some of these large patent trolls.
