FocusCanada Forums

Ford reportedly suing enthusiast web site over trademark infringements
Dec. 10.08
Source: Leftlanenews

Following up on an earlier story, a little more light has been shed on the case of TheRangerStation.com vs Ford. Apparently there was more to the story than originally met the eye, with the Ranger fan site trying to fool a fast one over on the Blue Oval.

To bring you up to speed:
Earlier today, TheRangerStation.com – a Ford Ranger fan web site – announced that it had received a letter from a law firm representing Ford asking it to give up its domain name along with any products using a registered Ford name or logo. The letter also demands $5,000 for trademark infringements and threatens a law suit of $100,000 if demands are not met.

Ford responded:
“I am certainly not pleased about this,” Scott Monty, head of Ford’s digital communications team, said. “There is nothing more important to us than our loyal fans, and the big picture seems to have escaped some people.”

However, after consulting with Ford’s legal department, Monty revealed “there may be more to the [situation] than meets the eye.” Monty didn’t go into any more detail, but it’s clear there are some underlying issues we’re not privy too.

And now:
It has been revealed that TRS was selling items on its web site, without permission, bearing the Ford and Ranger names/logos — a no-no in today’s world of corporate trademarks. The 10-year old web site must now pay Ford the royalties it is due, or face further legal action. TRS is fighting Ford over the matter, but it doesn’t sound like the site has much hope — kind of like the Ranger itself.

geez....ford is desperate for money they're coming after their own loyal fans. I wonder why ford is becoming very unpopular with the people.

Yeah, I read up on this story some more over at Escape-Central.com. It's about selling unlicensed merchandise. If Puppet was to start selling site-backed Focus merch, he'd be in a lot of trouble. Same if he had a deal to submit royalties on sales and didn't.

FocusCanada.net merchandise is one thing, Ford Focus merchandise is another. That's what's going on here.

I'm pretty sure we're safe. We're not selling anything with the ford logo or registered trademarks on it.

It's tricky, because people want to show their support, but you have to do it the right way if you're going to use their trademarks. You can use their trademarks, pay ford for the licensing and still make money.

NOS2Go4Me,Dec 11 2008, 08:26 AM Wrote:Yeah, I read up on this story some more over at Escape-Central.com. It's about selling unlicensed merchandise. If Puppet was to start selling site-backed Focus merch, he'd be in a lot of trouble. Same if he had a deal to submit royalties on sales and didn't.

FocusCanada.net merchandise is one thing, Ford Focus merchandise is another. That's what's going on here.
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^^QFT - and let's be clear - Ford hasn't sued anyone - they've only sent what is basically a cease and desist letter - ie: "stop or we'll sue."

You have to put this into the perspective of the trademark environment in the USA ... there have been a number of trademark infringement rulings in the US over the past years that basically says that if a company doesn't actively protect its trademarks, it can lose them ... so in a sense a company is forced to send cease and desist letters because if they don't they may lose the trademark alltogether.

IIRC the intent was to prevent someone from simply trademarking all kinds of stuff and then sitting on them and not actually producing something ... so in a way the rulings are being perverted - because obviously Ford wouldn't be at risk of losing its trademarks due to inactivitiy -- so this probably falls into the 'better safe than sorry' category.

Bottom line: if you want to sell merchandise that has any kind of Ford logo on it, you have to pay Ford for the rights to do so ... and with all the Ford crap out there you know Ford is willing to play ball if asked.

good explanation. Are you sure you're not a lawyer? :)