Reply to comment

There was a great article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this weekend on how technology can be used to curb the excesses of corporate behavior. Apparently, Monster Cable, the company that makes high-end audio-video cables, has a longstanding practice of suing anyone who uses the word “monster” in any sort of business, including t-shirt makers, theme parks, and baseball stadiums (think Red Sox, “Green…).

The article tells the story of how one couple, sued for using the name “Monster Mini Golf” for their business, decided to fight back by creating a web-based campaign to spread the word about Monster Cable’s overly aggressive trademark protection. Websites and bloggers picked up the story and hundreds of angry consumers contacted Monster Cable about the lawsuit. The company dropped the lawsuit and reimbursed the couple’s legal fees.

I’ll take some time in my next post to explore what this means from a larger perspective, but for now, it’s great to see how technology can be used to hold companies accountable to basic standards of corporate responsibility.