IwannaSportSedan Posted November 1, 2005 Share Posted November 1, 2005 Amen, I figure I am going to be more of an expert on the LGT when I finally get the ducks in a row to buy one, than pretty much anyone employed at the dealership. And plus I really like knowing what I am getting myself into when I buy something for tens of thousands of dollars. Aside from making sure the ducks are in a row before promising to pay that kind of cash. And having good folks like the members here to discuss these sorts of things with is priceless [/sappy] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tide Posted November 1, 2005 Share Posted November 1, 2005 I'm not "cyber-squatting" on legacysti.com, it was actually the first URL for the forums and was used for many months. We then had a poll to choose a better name. http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1064 And people voted on LegacyGT.com. I'm not concerned too much that another Subbie site was sent a letter. If/when I get a letter then I will give the letter its due recognition. I will most likely also consult a laywer at that point to be sure both parties legal rights are upheld. Until then... "simma dann nah" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgeracer Posted November 1, 2005 Share Posted November 1, 2005 Tide....Mother Subie is well aware of this site as it was pointed out to myself today by there customer rep. If they had a problem with this site, you would have gotten a letter already. "Gimme mines Balboa...Gimme mines".....Clubber Lang - Mr. T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melayout Posted November 1, 2005 Share Posted November 1, 2005 Ditto, my district rep is aware of the site and has commented in similar words that it is much more mature than nastycocks. I keed I keeed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon in CT Posted November 1, 2005 Share Posted November 1, 2005 Ditto, my district rep is aware of the site and has commented in similar words that it is much more mature than nastycocks.Obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melayout Posted November 1, 2005 Share Posted November 1, 2005 Hehe, come on. I keed I keeed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dark_rex Posted November 1, 2005 Share Posted November 1, 2005 they need to prove he profited from the use of the word before they have any real standing. it's a legal scare tactic. i'm sure after their expensive, lengthy subpoenas on some puny website hoster, they'll call off the dogs when they have nothing to stand on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsalicru Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 they need to prove he profited from the use of the word before they have any real standing. it's a legal scare tactic. i'm sure after their expensive, lengthy subpoenas on some puny website hoster, they'll call off the dogs when they have nothing to stand on. Umm.. sure, SOA has much deeper pockets than "some puny website hoster" Put yourself on the hoster's shoes.. "some say, his arms are made of coiled adamantium fibers. And that he tops his cereal with nuts and bolts. All we know is, he's called the Jose." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raz-0 Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 Sometimes I find this stuff stupid, sometimes funny, but most often baffling. Yes, WE may not be jerks causing SoA fiscal harm or diluting their mark. However, if they allow US to dilute their mark, then the jerk who IS trying to rip them off can get away with it. However, rather than a crappy form letter filled out like some legal madlib, SoA might actually ask their lawyers to work for a living, nudge productive fansite owners to ask for permission, and simplify the act of jumping through a few minor hoops that would make it all legit. Heck, some pre-packaged galleries of new models, a small track day event for a handful of web-site owners/reps, and they'd have EXTREMELY strong grass roots promotion and a feeling of community. They already spend an assload trying to do a half-assed version of what jeep and harley-davidson do to breed this kind of fandom. If they jsut spent their time and money wisely, they'd be a lot closer than they are. Yeah, the cease and decist is not an unreasonable act, it just strikes me as somewhat counterproductive as a generic strategy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biturbowagon Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 Actually, it goes farther than that. By law, Subaru must aggressively protect its brands and trademarks, or lose them. They can't just let something slide, such as the website in question. +1 Subaru and FHI has every right to protect their brands and trademarks. The laws exist for a reason and we should respect them. If you don't like them...run for the House of Representatives, the Senate or the President and get them changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edvig Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 raz-0 and biturbowagon are exactly correct. All SOA is trying to do is protect their brand and it's their lawful right to do so. The owner of ravensblade-impreza is a great guy and has been extremely helpful to me in the past, I wish him the best of luck in resolving this with SOA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keith05legacyGT Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 VOA did a similar thing about 5 years ago. Basically they came down on all the companies that had "VW", "Volkswagon","VW Bug", etc. in any of their advertising. They said they didn't want people buying parts from these places thinking they were genuine VW parts (when was the last time you could by a part for a 69 Bug Convert from VOA---palease). They also said they wanted to be able to ensure quality (that was pretty funny coming from VW nowadays). Legally, it was their right to do it. In reality what happened is for a long time it was difficult for people to get parts for air-cooled VW's while everyone changed their names/ads. A lot of smaller specialty parts vendors went under and most VW magazines got a lot thinner. The air-cooled community was up in arms, VW got a LOT of bad PR, but everyone felt VW didn't care because they did not get any revenue from that group anyways. VW tried to explain the whole copyright thing repeatedly online and in numerous magazines, but by then a bunch of folks were already out for blood. Eventually, life went on and I can still get bug parts. Their action affected many more people than anything SOA is doing now. If you think about it, VW would of never had any issues if they would of acted sooner. By coming out and clearly stating their stance now, SOA can actually prevent the customer relation problems VOA and their user community had. Just another way to look at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tide Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 I've already registered another forum name, fyi. Not sure if/when I will use it but its nice to have in my back pocket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon in CT Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 I've already registered another forum name, fyi. Not sure if/when I will use it but its nice to have in my back pocket.So what'd ya pick? One of the ones mentioned here earlier? Another possibility for you, Tide, is to approach SOA directly as the owner of this site and ask for guidance and, perhaps, permission to use a trademark, for this site's name. Explain that you want to do right thing by them. Porsche (most hardnosed of all) allows some online clubs to use the word Porsche in their name (but maybe not in the domain name). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny_m Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 Jon has a good idea in approaching SOA before they come knocking. It might be as simple as a disclaimer (not affiliated with SOA type of thing) at the bottom of the main page. Afterall, it isn't like they don't know we exist. While "Legacy" and "GT" may be hard for SOA to persue their case in court, the grouping of the words together could be a case. In the 80's and early 90's, Intel faced something similar. They wanted to trademark 386, 486 (and 586). The courts told them they couldn't. What did they do? Come up with a unique name that they could trademark. That is why the 586 became the Pentium and why Intel has then since done Celeron, Xeon, EM64T and so on. Drug companies face it every day. Drug compounds cannot be trademarked by their chemical names but the marketeers certainly come up with catchy names that can be trademarked. Believe it or not, companies have people whose job it is to surf the web and see who is using their tradmarked names. (I'm sure if Tide checked his weblogs, he'd find that folks from Intel have visited this post) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tide Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 It is absolutely not a good idea for me to contact SoA. Thats the fastest way for me to get a cease and desist because they would have to acknowledge my existance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iyamdman Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 It is absolutely not a good idea for me to contact SoA. Thats the fastest way for me to get a cease and desist because they would have to acknowledge my existance. +1 Contact in this situation would not be so good, better to prepare for if they do come a knocking. As you can tell, the folks at SOA are not Business or Marketing Brain Surgeons. It is easier for them to try to beat a problem to death, than to figure out how to turn it into an asset. The quicker this quiets down, the better. If we are a good little forum, helping the community, not selling much stuff - we should be OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STG Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 At the risk of repeating other comments... Subaru has to protect their trademarks or lose them. Bingo! Ask Carroll Shelby about not protecting trademarks and losing a lawsuit against Cobra replica maker Factory Five. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew.anderson Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 This is a little silly os SOA. I suppose if I was a business I would do the same thing though. Ignore then and they will go away. I promise it will work. That is what I do with my problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red beast Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 http://www.loagt.com doesn't exist when search for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest *Jedimaster* Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 I'm tellin' ya- if I can ignore George Lucas with my site, you can ignore SOA with yours. George lays the flannel smackdown most of the time, but not with me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rporter Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 '] Porsche (most hardnosed of all) allows some online clubs to use the word Porsche in their name (but maybe not in the domain name). Actually, not. They obviously have allowed the PCA to continue, with the name (they are largely a shill for the company, anyway), but they have cracked down on the use of any of their trademarked names (Porsche, 911, etc) for clubs, companies, or domai names. We went through these discussions a few years back when a number of Porsche folks were getting "the letter" (as well as the forum that we were on), and I don't even believe that they were getting the option to license the name. SOA must follow what other similar companies must do to protect their intellectual property. Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddub Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 I'm surprised this hasn't come up before. The whole reason SOA is going after ravensblade-impreza is not because of the name (although that is the legal hook they are using), but rather because the same guy also owns deniedmywarranty.org . It seems that SOA was not too keen about a web site devoted to how subaru is handling warranty claims. They found out about the link and immediately starting causing problems for his other sites. All of the gory details are on nasioc as I remember reading them there. Either way, I would say that Tide has it covered with the backup domain name. Just look at all of the domains that nasioc has been: nasioc, iclub, and about 3 before that (I think impreza-rs was one). how about wwsloc.com (world wide subaru legacy owner's club) or just sloc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rporter Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 how about wwsloc.com (world wide subaru legacy owner's club) or just sloc Since we call them LGTs, IMHO something using that acronym would sound better than LOC or SLOC!! Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougc Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 If anyone from SOA browsed through this site, they would see that it helps their current customers as well as encourages potential buyers. I stumbled upon this site after I purchased my Legacy. If I had found this site before hand, I just may have spent the extra money and bought the GT. I opted for the amenities rather than the larger engine. It just may have been the other way around. Anyhoo, this site has helped me alot. Besides what SOA and Wappingers Falls Subaru just recently did for me was posted on this forum. Anyone questioning SOA's loyalty to their products/customers would see that they stand behind both. I can tell ya right now, I will buy another Subaru. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.