First, and most important, the Next Technologies vs Beyond The Office Door case was dismissed.
On June 10th, 2020, District Judge William M. Conley ordered that “Defendant Beyond the Office Door’s motion for summary judgment (dkt. #21) is GRANTED.”
Read the 32-page judgment from Judge Conley – View the full written decision and order here
BTOD Lawsuit Case Dismissed Video
BTOD.com’s Response to Xdesk / Next Techologies / EvoDesk
Prior to the case dismissal, we made the decision to provide a factual response to Xdesk. On May 13th, 2020, we covered the top five claims they made against our company in their lawsuit. The video created debunked their false allegations against BTOD. Below is the video for you to reference.
Continued Attacks on BTOD
If you’ve followed our brand, or spent time searching for reviews on BTOD, there is a good chance you’ve encountered one of Next’s attacks on BTOD. Even though our case has been dismissed in Federal Court by Judge Conley, Next Technologies continues to press the issue.
Two screenshots of the ads being ran by Xdesk.com and EvoDesk.com on Google as of 9/7/20:
In addition to the Google Ads above, Next Technologies has run multiple video ad campaigns on YouTube as well. These are the type of ads that show before and during videos you intend to watch while on YouTube. One of their ads has reached as many as 300,000 views by forcing users to watch their ads pre-video start and during the YouTube video. In total, they have created three videos on an Xdesk brand YouTube channel, with the sole purpose of attacking BTOD. The videos thumbnails are shown below:
BTOD’s Plan Moving Forward
As we’ve done thus far, we plan to maintain our professionalism. Our customers are smart and can tell for themselves what is based in fact and what is aimed at damaging reputations. Nonetheless, as has been our practice for years, we wanted to give you the facts and let you make up your mind for yourselves.
Eli
Are comments allowed on this article? It seems like they’re not.
Eli G.
I just read that entire decision – thank you very much for posting it! That was as straightforward and easy to read as it was hilarious. The judge, William M. Conley, is quite a good writer and very funny. I honestly laughed a number of times reading that decision, it’s a very entertaining read. But then, that case itself, and all the very silly office furniture drama, is unexpectedly highly entertaining.
NextDesk (AKA Next / XDesk / EvoDesk), the plaintiff, actually posted on their website the lawsuit they filed, and I read that short document too. It’s pretty misleading that they feature it there as if it matters in some way that they filed it, as opposed to the actual result and decision. I’m not a lawyer, but my goodness, they really owned themselves in their own arguments. Reading that is like reading someone talking about how idiotic they are, and then claiming it’s someone else’s fault.
I couldn’t believe some of their arguments, and the way they thought they were putting forth decent points. It was all so hilariously silly. As the judge noted several times, they made one single decent point, about the collision detection and overload prevention issue, which clearly had some merit but was a really tiny, insignificant thing to get upset about, but that was really the only thing they said that even made a shred of sense, everything else was just hilarious self-ownage – and there was a whole lot of that.
And the way they talk about Greg and BTOD, the selective things they quote and provide as “evidence”, they were transparently attempting to make Greg and BTOD look bad, but in ways that just had absolutely no bearing on the actual claims asserted in their lawsuit. It was just like they wanted to insult the guy they were suing as much as possible, and thought that would work.
Honestly, those lawyers who brought the suit – a Texas and Louisiana law firm, apparently – are utterly terrible lawyers. I would say they should be disbarred just for bringing the suit, though that seems extreme for one suit alone. They should have advised their client that this was an idiotic, meritless suit and refused to file it. It was perhaps worth something as sheer entertainment, but was otherwise a giant waste of everyone’s time.
Anyway, I’m glad I read it, and I’m glad I discovered and read through all this office furniture drama (office furniture drama! LOL) from 2020, it’s all extremely entertaining.
To Greg, I don’t know you and I do think you very clearly run BTOD mostly to promote and sell your own family’s RightAngle / NewHeights / K&A products, but I have to say, Next did a downright terrible job at trying to make you look bad. You were honest in your responses and initial articles to begin with, and that came across pretty thoroughly in the initial filings, your deposition, and the final decision. If anything, you came out looking pretty good and honorable, especially for a salesman.
I don’t know which standing desk I’ll buy right now, and I do think your video reviews and testing processes could be a lot more fair to your competitors’ products, and a lot more rigorous and harsh on your own products – which do have some problems and imperfections that I think you should more actively address – but Next only proved that you’re a far more honest salesman than most.
I would honestly love to buy a RightAngle-made desk if it suits my needs and the price is good enough. I won’t buy anything from China, and I love that RA / K&A is a family-owned US company making their stuff right there in Wisconsin. Thanks again for posting the full decision, and for talking all about it in your videos and posting your response. It’s all such great stuff, and I have greatly appreciated the entertainment and learning about it all.