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Re: Logo Infringement
Dirk I think you are making the right decision. I recently got a letter from
an Attorney stating that our shops website was in violation of this very
same law. They demanded that we pay them 5k$ and remove their logo from our
site. They furthermore stated that we could not put pics of our own cars or
ANY Vw on our site.
So I decided to contact some other companies about this shit (TT, Virtual
World Parts, Autotech). Some of them knew about this and some didnt. Mike
(thanks man!) stated that if you didnt reply to the email then they would
have no way of knowing for certain or be able to document that you actually
received the email.
Our letter unfortunately was a registered letter. Now I do understand the
intent of VW in my case. We have a website designed to sell VW stuff. VW
makes no $ from us. But even still the statement that I cannot put a pic of
my own car on my shops website is ridiculous. Even if I put it under the
heading of works in progress. By this same statute theoretically you cannot
stand on the side of the road with a pic of anything VW and try to sell
something out of your trunk.
What it boils down to is that some fuckhead beraucrat (sp?) in the US is
trying to make his quota for "saving" the worlds 3rd largest car
manufacturer from having their business taken from them. He needs to be
fired (with a large gun preferably).
Bottom line. Dont reply until you get the registered letter. Its kinda funny
that ONLY VWoA and not VWAG has been know to do this to its customers.
Chris DeLong
ICQ#45030867
Seattle, WA USA
'80 16V 'Rocco ragtop
'91 GLi 2.0 16V
'77 Rabbit 16V
'80 'Vert (parting out!)
'61 17 Window type II
'91 Vanagon
'78 Rabbit
'78 Rabbit (for sale)
'87 GTi 16V
>From: SCIROCCO2@t-online.de (Dirk Schneider)
>Reply-To: "Dirk Schneider" <Dirk@Scirocco2.de>
>To: "'Scirocco List'" <scirocco-L@scirocco.org>
>Subject: Re: Logo Infringement
>Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 20:18:12 +0100
>
>
>
>Thanks for all your mails !
>
>At the moment I think I wait and do just nothing.
>
>The risk in asking VW-Germany would be
> that they will be attentive towards me then, and I'm pretty sure that
>they won't give me a permission
>but also want to prevent me from showing VW-logos as I'm in no
>way legally related with VW ...
>
>I'm waiting for the first registered postal mail to arrive here,
>then I might replace the VW-logo ( that I edited myself )
>with something less "dangerous".
>
>I guess they can't sue me for showing pictures of my VW-cars on the web,
>especially not my debadged GTX ?
>
>....and like Jason said, what will happen if I put a picture from a
>Scirocco grille
>with VW badge on the website ? Is it illegal to show parts of my car on the
>web ??
>
>the more I think about it the less sense this all makes for me.
>
>anyway, I just wait what happens and keep you updated...
>
>friendly Greetings !
>Dirk
>
>
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Aaron Ness" <aaron@makuta.com>
>To: "'Dirk Schneider'" <Dirk@Scirocco2.de>; "'Scirocco List'"
><scirocco-L@scirocco.org>
>Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001 7:42 PM
>Subject: RE: Logo Infringement
>
>
>Good point about the language - respond (in long German sentences with lots
>of big important words) that you don't understand what they are saying
>because they didn't bother to write in your language. Offer to hire a
>translator at their expense or something smart-assed like that. Then if
>they bother to write to you in German, you can begin to consider them
>legitimately interested in doing something to you.
>
>Aaron
>'87 528e
>'82 Scirocco
>'70 Beetle
>'82 GPz550
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > [mailto:owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org]On Behalf Of Dirk Schneider
> > Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001 12:39 PM
> > To: Scirocco List
> > Cc: Takacs Attila; Macsek; Sam
> > Subject: Fw: Logo Infringement
> >
> >
> > Hello listers,
> >
> > just got this stupid e-mail below.
> > did anyone else get such an e-mail recently ?
> >
> > is this important for me ? ( as it isn't written in german so
> > how should I read it ?? )
> >
> >
> > ARE THEY CRAZY OR WTF ????
> >
> > what is next ? www.scirocco.org maybe ???
> >
> > slightly irritated
> > Dirk
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "ceaseanddesist@legal-warning"
> > <ceaseanddesist@legal-warning.com>
> > To: <SCIROCCO@t-online.de>
> > Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001 5:33 PM
> > Subject: Logo Infringement
> >
> >
> > RE: First Letter/Logo Infringement
> > Mark: VW®
> > File: 258
> > Dear Mr. Dirk Schneider:
> >
> > We represent Volkswagen of America, Inc. ("VWoA"), a wholly-owned
> > subsidiary and exclusive U.S. importer of cars manufactured
> > by Volkswagen
> > AG ("Volkswagen") and Audi AG ("Audi"). VWoA is charged with
> > protecting
> > trademarks associated with those cars and has asked us to
> > contact you on
> > its behalf.
> >
> > VWoA learned that you are using Volkswagen's registered mark
> > VW® on your
> > website SCIROCCO2.DE. However, the above referenced mark is a
> > registered
> > trademark belonging to Volkswagen, and may not be used without the
> > express permission of the owner. Your use of this mark, and the use of
> > the SCIROCCO advertisement on your website, violates the
> > Lanham Act, 15
> > U.S.C. §§ 1114, 1125, and infringes upon Volkswagen's state and common
> > law trademark rights.
> >
> > On behalf of VWoA, we request that upon receipt of this
> > letter you cease
> > and desist from using their registered mark on your website,
> > and on all
> > advertising or promotional materials. Your continuing use of
> > this mark is
> > misleading to the public and constitutes a misappropriation
> > of customer
> > goodwill developed and paid for by Volkswagen. For your
> > information, VW
> > was recently awarded damages in the excess of $250,000 against an
> > independent garage that refused to cease using VW's logos.
> > Volkswagen is
> > very diligent in enforcing trademark rights, and will not tolerate
> > infringements such as yours.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Stephen J. Arpaia, Esq.
> >
> > -------------------------------
> > IP Protector, LLC
> > http://ipprotector.com
> > 2604 Elmwood Avenue, #178
> > Rochester, NY 14618 - 2295
> > -------------------------------
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Email LIST problems to: scirocco-l-probs@scirocco.org.
> > To unsubscibe send "unsubscribe scirocco-l" in the message to
> > majordomo@scirocco.org
> >
>
>
>
>
>
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