Re: Logo Infringement

["Dave Ewing" <rabbit16v@prodigy.net>]

Don't be sorry, you spoke your piece, didn't attack anyone on the list and
made a bunch of sense!!  While reading your post I was curious about the
rules of copyrighted items and if it is as was mentioned earlier in this
thread than VW would risk losing the VW symbol (which is an international
icon!!) and having to pay someone else to use it or change it all together
(which could be good, who knows!!).  Other than that, right on!!  All makes
sense to me and I have faith that your letter to VW will be using similar
manners so they should recognize your professionalism and respond
professionally!!  That is interesting though how the bigger a Co. gets it
seems the less "people serving" they become.

Dave

> Having thought about this logo infringment situation over night, I have
come
> to the same conclusion I did when I fired off my first e-mail moments
after
> I learned of the e-mail from VWoA to Dirk.  Clearly, intellectual property
> is valuable and should be protected.  There is no reason to exepect
> Volkwagen to ignore copyright infringements.  On the other hand, there is
> very little reason to believe that use of the VW logo, by a VW enthusiast,
> on his personal website (in Germany) sets into motion a domino effect that
> threatens all trademarked and copyrighted material everywhere.  One could
> argue that if VW allows one site to infringe, then everyone can infringe.
> One could argue that this type of infringment, though minor, would eat
away
> at the very foundation of intellectual property law, if left unchecked.
One
> could argue that VW can't possibly police all of the personal websites,
> e-mail lists or written materials produced by enthusiasts across the globe
> to insure these materials are a positive reflection of VW's trademark.
The
> strongest argument can probably be found in the idea that when one sees
the
> VW logo, one assumes, "This is Volkswagen" and certainly Volkswagen
doesn't
> want any confusion.  The question here is not whether VW HAS the right to
do
> a thing, it is whether they ARE right to do a thing.  Here, it is the
level
> of risk to VW.  Frankly, the risk of damage to the VW image is minimal
> despite the strong arguments in their favor.  More distressing though is
> that VW never analysed the risk to their coveted trademark.  I doubt there
> was any evaluation of the website at all.  Someone at VWoA noticed the
logo
> and without the least bit of thought called an attorney in Rochester.  End
> of story for VW.  To me, this is the injustice.  VW's trademark provides
> them with an identity and an image.  IP law enables them to protect that
> identity and image.  Even so, somewhere, VW has missed the point.  VW's
> success is not in a trademark.  Their success can be found in the
affordable
> and high quality product they consistently produce.  It is not the
trademark
> that enables VW to produce this product profitably, it is you and I, the
> consumer.  Someone at VW forgot this fact when they noticed their
trademark
> on some guy's web site in Germany.  Someone at VW failed to do what most
of
> our parents began teaching us to do before we could walk with any degree
of
> skill....be considerate of people.  Someone at VW needed to send an
e-mail,
> or a letter, or place a phone call that said, "Thankyou for supporting our
> product", or "We appreciate your enthusiasm for VW", but....  and then
list
> some of their concerns and finally ask the guy to remove it.  This needed
to
> be done before some lawyer in Rochester was ever called.  VW's approach
says
> to me, "We don't give a damn.  We are not concerned with why you use our
> logo, we are not concerned with who you are, and we are not concered with
> where you are.  You are an infringement of our intellectual property
rights
> and nothing more."  This e-mail to Dirk tells me that I am one of two
things
> to volkwagen; a puchaser and therefore profit or a liability and therefore
a
> potential loss.  Maybe this is how all large corporations look at
consumers.
>   So be it.  All I know, is the small company that I work for cannot
afford
> to look at people in this way.  I know that I cannot afford to look at
> people in this way.  Perhaps VW and other large companies can afford to
sort
> people into one of two categories.  This is probably the case, but even
so,
> if I am made aware of it, if I see it first hand as I have in this case,
> then I will not purchase their product.  So, I will send VW a letter and I
> will hope for a response.  Perhaps it will change my mind.  But if the
> response is similar in nature to the message sent to Dirk, then they will
> have lost a customer.  The fact that other car manufacturers might operate
> in the same way is of little consequence to me.  It is probable that
> someday, some other manufacturer will piss me off and I won't buy their
> product.  In the meantime, I hope that VW responds to my letter.  I would
be
> satisfied even with a form letter response, as long as someone at VW who
> wrote that form letter thought about the recipient enough to merely say,
> "thank you".  Thank you for your comments, for your bitching, for buying
our
> product.  Thank you for being a consumer of our product, because even if
you
> are a pissed off consumer at the moment, your support, in part, makes us
the
> company we are today.  In other words, we at VW have to protect our
> trademark.  Thank you consumer for contributing to what that trademark
> represents.
>
> PLEASE NOTE:  With that, I promise to drop this subject and get off my
soap
> box.  Sorry.
>
> Warren Price
>
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