Legal issues

[TreeFrog]

I am a member of several gropus..as most here are.  I just started getting some Very disturbing news and this is the Posted note to all users.  I fear this board may be next.  And if it has been hit on I have missed the news...

 



March 20, 2007

Dave 'BK' Schultz

 

1906 Days ago, I registered the domain name MoparStyle.com, and five days later I had a forum up and running. The history of this community can be found below.

 

Yesterday, a Lindsay Estes from the people who I was using as the site's gift shop, deleted almost 2000 items from the gift shop. The reason I was given was that a Kim Ray, who is a Paralegal from DaimlerChrysler Intellectual Capital Company LLC., contacted them indicating the web address of moparstyle.com violated their Intellectual Property right -- because it contained their trademark of MOPAR in it. After a few emails and many hours -- I was told that DaimlerChrysler would not exercise their claimed right against MoparStyle while they decided their policy with clubs, and the items were restored to the gift shop.

 

However, since I left with the impression that any policy in the future might flip-flop back again -- I felt it to be prudent to change the name of our Mopar Internet Community to something devoid of any potential claim in the future. Thus -- we will now go by MoPower Style and migrate away from the MoparStyle name.

 

While you should start thinking of us as MoPower Style and start to use the domain address of MoPowerStyle.com -- the old domain name will still get you here in the near future.

 

I am sorry for both the inconvenience that this might cause you, and the 100s of hours I'll need to change the graphics, links, and items in the gift shop -- it will all be for the better by having the peace of mind that the site could not be shut down without notice to the members. Please update your records with the new address, change any links on your web sites, save the new address as a favorite in your browser, and get use to referring to this community as MoPower Style. After five+ years, this will take a little getting use to.

 

Thank you

BK

[Carlwalski]

Man that sucks mate I feel for the owner. I own something very similar and won't post it in this thread as I don't want any bugs finding unnecessarly. It does have Mopar in it so I will keep an eye out. Pretty lame if you ask me. Enthusiasts joining together to support the brand name yet "they" pull the rug out underneath you and give you no place to stay, yet, they will probably have the cheek to say: "Thank you, please come again". 

If it were something like "Mopar Shoes" or "Mopar Burgers", then, THAT, I could fully understand. Changing links sucks and takes time. Most of which is spent trying to remember where-else you linked from. 

Wish the owner all the best. 

[Rare_T_A]

Got the email yesterday from them about it. I cannot understand why DC wants to always beat down their hardcore base. I just don't understand it at all!!

[70RTdroptop]

Not surprising coming from the people who thought a 4-door Charger was the thing to do...

[kudakidd]

Sounds like the 4 wheel version of Harley Davidson

[67vertman]

This recently happened in the Volkswagen world.  VW of America sent out letters like you are seeing here, requesting that anyone using a VW emblem, VW likeness or name would be sued.  Legal tactics like these are usually meant to scare people.  VW wanted people to sign up for a trade mark rights.  There was a guy selling concrete shape vehicles in the image of Bugs and Vans that you could place in your garden.  VW of America wanted him to submit examples of his items for their review.  Pay an astronomical fee, $30,000 per item and pay VW a royalty for each item sold.  All this so he could use something that resembled a VW even though he did not include the VW logo on these items.

I agree that there needs to be trade mark protection, but tactics like these only serve to discourage and turn off the people who gave these people the sells.

[Hopalong]

Talk about killing any loyalty to a brand.  I think that ford did something like this with the mustang name, going after certain aftermarket suppliers that supported the mustang hobby.  Just seems like bad business sense to me.  Why would you want to scare off someone that has been loyal to your brand over the use of a stupid name?

[HP2]

It sucks, but if you don't defend your trademark, then eventually it can become public domain and anyone can use it for any purpose what so ever.

This exact same thing happened to Thermos, I beleive. They never bothered to defend their tradmarked name for decades. Once they finally went after someone about it, they lost because they never demonstrated any effort to preserve the trademark in the past.

[70_challenger]

This issue was discussed in another thread: http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=31626.0

In that thread, I offered a (long-winded) explanation of why protecting trademarks/copyrights is so important.  Hopefully the explanation makes sense.  If DC knows of a violation, and takes no action to stop it, then they give away the right to act later (See my Hummer example in the other thread...I am a Jeep owner/enthusiast, and I don't like seeing the Jeep-style grilles on Hummers!).

I am not familiar with this MoparStyle/MoPower Style, but it sounds like they were OK until they started selling stuff?

-Tom

[TreeFrog]

They had a better line, but it was no different than our Cuda Challenger Shirts....
that are sold...