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RE: Logo Infringement
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OK, I don't work for VW, nor am I a lawyer or anything like that, but
let me try one more time to make clear the reason that VWoA HAS to do
things like this. We live in a country where a woman actually was
awarded millions of dollars by a court of law, simply because her
child was supposedly "traumatized" by the fact that her Barbie doll
did not move by itself like in the TV commercials. As a result, we
now have subscripts on all our toy commercials saying "simulated toy
motion, toy does not move by itself!"
Now in a country where the legal system can be twisted that far, just
so some lazy ass can make a buck off of a gratuitous lawsuit,
companies cannot afford to have unofficial sites floating around that
clearly display their trademark. It would be all to easy for someone
to sue VW, claiming they thought it was an official VW site, and
holding VW responsible for the fact that they cut their own hand off
while trying to install a new fan according to a procedure on some
website. If you don't think it could happen, ask yourself; who
doesn't expect coffee to be hot? Yet a woman successfully sued for
rather hefty damages because she did not expect coffee to burn her if
she spilled it in her lap while driving!
VW has to be able to demonstrate in court that they have sent letters
like this to everyone they are aware of who is using the VW logo
without permission, otherwise they are opening themselves up for
exactly this sort of litigation, and I assure you, if they open
themselves up for it, some vulture will take advantage of it.
Also, many people have talked about changes to the artwork to get
around the issue, and I have to point out that that is a copyright
you are thinking about. A copyright is only valid for a specific
piece of art, and any "discernable" modification of the art renders
the copyright useless. However, a trademark covers the exact art or
any likeness of the art. In fact, as long as it is "recognizable" as
the trademarked symbol, then it falls under the law. For example,
many years ago, a small computer company named Apricot was found to
be in violation of Apple's trademark, because they were marketing an
Apple compatible computer, with the name Apricot, and an outline of
an apricot on the case. This was found to be similar enough to the
Apple trademark that the company was in violation.
Many people have also asked about their hood badge. As long as the
badge is on a product made by VW, then you can display it. However,
were you to put a VW badge on a Pinto, you could technically be sued
for "dilution of brand identity." Now usually companies do not press
this issue against individuals, but several years back LEGO sued an
artist who made a reproduction of a concentration camp entirely out
of LEGO bricks for exactly this reason.
As I have said before, I have spent a great deal of time working for
media firms, and have had to deal with the various types of
intellectual property quite a bit, so this is just my functional
understanding of the issues involved. If a legal type has better
information, or if I am wrong on something here, I am always
interested in learning more.
The goal is to overcome the deliberate nature of the process.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> [mailto:owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org]On Behalf Of Brian Haygood
> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001 8:54 PM
> To: scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> Subject: Re: Logo Infringement
>
>
> The shop I usually go to had to change their name and their signs
> recently
> because they had two letters from the end of the alphabet that I'm
> not alloud to utter in their name. This is the biggest pile of
> horse crap I have ever seen a company pull, but apparently it has
> been
> happening to a lot
> of shops and sites. We should all complain to V... I mean, that
> car company.
>
> We are loyal supporters of something we can't mention. What a
> bunch of crap.
>
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