Volkswagen attacked my shop ! Need help ! ... Options

[johannes]

Hi all you lawyers. Just received this mail from Cafepress.

Dear Shopkeeper,

Thank you for using CafePress.com!

In accordance with our Intellectual Property Rights Policy, Gregory D. Phillips, on behalf of Volkswagen of America, Inc. provided us with a notice stating that your use of images bearing the distinctive shape of the Classic and New Volkswagen vehicles, the VW Emblem and/or other VW trademarks and trade dress infringes upon their intellectual property rights (trademark/copyright). Please click here for more information about intellectual property.

Accordingly, we have set the content that is alleged to infringe the rights of the third party to “pending status” which disables said content from being displayed in your shop or purchased by the public. You may review the content set to pending status by logging into your CafePress.com account and clicking on the “Media Basket” link. The content set to pending status will be highlighted red.

If you believe that you hold the rights to the content alleged to infringe the rights of the third party, we encourage you to contact the alleged rights holder directly for a resolution to this matter. Below please find the contact information for the party alleging infringement.

We realize that you are a dedicated fan and are expressing such through your art work, as only a true fan could. That being said, feel free to contact Volkswagen of America directly to voice your concerns about not being able to express you true love for the automobile. You are, after all, part of the fan base and, more importantly, part of the purchasing public and have assisted in creating greater sales of the automobiles, and have helped elevate the VW properties to their current cult status. Please find the contact information for Volkswagen of America and their representative below if you want to share your concerns.

Law offices of Howard, Phillips & Andersen

Gregory Phillips

560 East 200 South, Suite 300

Salt Lake City, UT 84102

801.366.7471

gdp@hpalaw.com

We apologize for any inconvenience that our actions may cause you. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

I don't care about the shop ( I did'nt sold anything on cafepress ). I will close the shop anyway ... but this can also happen to my other T-shirts shop garage.spreadshirt.com.

They banned my hand made 914 designs, my "just drive it" parody ... they also banned my 914 shape !!! yep NARP ... just a VW ...
I don't understand. They banned some designs and not some others ? What do I risk ? What should I answer if I am contacted again for my spreadshirt shop ?

[Cap'n Krusty]

Trust me, they have more money and lawyers than you do. Don't make them use 'em. If it gets to a point where they file in Federal Court, you are obligated by law to answer to that court, and you MUST use a lawyer (one licensed to do business with that court) to file your answer, and that doesn't come cheap. It cost me 3 or 4 hundred bucks to do so 30 years ago, and it's gonna be many times that now. Tell 'em you quit, and do it. They'll monitor you. John Dunkle tried to negotiate when his site was called Porschelist, and he couldn't make it work. The Cap'n, BTDT

[black73]

I'm not a lawyer but I do know Ford hired the same law firm VW uses and are going after all the Mustang vendors, using the same tactics.

[turboman808]

I find it weird that they would even care?!?!

Seems to me sometimes people just get a bug up there ass because they can.

[JPB]

From France and not in France as the statement might be right? Well, if you were in China you could stick your middle finger in the air and laugh at them. If you are here in the US, they will do whatever they want if they decide to choose. I would call this a political/geographical setback.


(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) Quit and hide and don't accept any summons!!

[Howard]

Went through a similar situation with eBay. I was selling a part that came off a wrecked Ferrari. Ferrari wrote to eBay saying I violated their 'intellectual property' by even using their name in my ad.

Yes it's true. If you run an ad that says 'Porsche for Sale' they can tell you to stop. All this is ridiculous, of course, and is not enforced 99% of the time, but you won't win this with CafePress. They are required to pull your ad until Porsche tells them differently.

[johannes]

Went through a similar situation with eBay. I was selling a part that came off a wrecked Ferrari. Ferrari wrote to eBay saying I violated their 'intellectual property'

Oh yes! I remember the Ferrari ©. This was SOOO funny (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

They are required to pull your ad until Porsche tells them differently.

Not even Porsche © ... It was VW © ! ... must say there was a BUG sticker in my shop too. A drawing I made from the car .

[GWN7]

Porsche just hasn't gotten around to you yet (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[G e o r g e]

well since you can't sell them anymore just ship your leftovers to me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[alpha434]

Your vending is somewhat protected on this site. And as far as legality is concerned, it's not illegal to make the shirts, only illegal to sell them. Wink wink. Maybe it wouldn't be that big of a deal to just get VW's permission?

Meanwhile, my buddy, Al had an add in the phonebook with a good picture of a 911 going down a street, years ago. Porsche ordered him to not reprint the add. The first year he did it, he didn't respond. The second year, he responded and agreed to stop the 3rd went the same. Was ordered to stop absolutely and he said ok. And at the forth year he posted the same add with another companies name on it. They caught all the shit coming down the tube. But I don't know if this helps you at all, and I' sure the laws were way less stringent in the 80's when Al owned Storz's Garage.


Maybe we should keep google and such from seeing some of our classifieds so that other people won't have to deal with this stuff.

And Howard. You probly could've made Ferrari eat sh_t on that one.

[So.Cal.914]

[quote name='johannes' date='Sep 13 2006, 03:11 PM' post='771023']
[quote]Dear Shopkeeper,

We realize that you are a dedicated fan and are expressing such through your art work, as only a true fan could. That being said, feel free to contact Volkswagen of America directly to voice your concerns about not being able to express you true love for the automobile. You are, after all, part of the fan base and, more importantly, part of the purchasing public and have assisted in creating greater sales of the automobiles, and have helped elevate the VW properties to their current cult status. Please find the contact information for Volkswagen of America and their representative below if you want to share your concerns.

Law offices of Howard, Phillips & Andersen

Gregory Phillips

[/quote]

As I remember you are an airbrush artist ?

If so Gregory Phillips may have given you a possable answer. If it were me

I would do as this guy sudjests and contact them as an artist and give them

that whole line. Also I liked the point that was made above about it not being

against the law to make them only to sell them, give them away and take

donations, fortune tellers have been getting away with it for years. My.02

[Eric_Shea]

Answer = Free + $20.00 shipping and handling.

[LowGT]

Seems to me sometimes people just get a bug up there ass because they can.

Sorry, but am I the only one that found that humorous? VW has a "bug" up their ass. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chairfall.gif)

[So.Cal.914]

I thought so too, but I did not know if Johannes knew the word "Punn".

Sometimes it's best to just keep quiet.

[johannes]

I thought so too, but I did not know if Johannes knew the word "Punn".
Sometimes it's best to just keep quiet.

Punn ? ... What's that ?

[GWN7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pun

[So.Cal.914]

I thought so too, but I did not know if Johannes knew the word "Punn".
Sometimes it's best to just keep quiet.

Punn ? ... What's that ?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif) I stand corrected.

[Spoke]

Your vending is somewhat protected on this site. And as far as legality is concerned, it's not illegal to make the shirts, only illegal to sell them. Wink wink.

This reminds me of a stupid law passed in PA concerning gentlemens clubs who charge admission AND allow BYOB. Because of the nude women and BYOB, the state deemed that the clubs could not charge admission.

So what one club did was remove the admission charge but charged everyone $12 for a plastic cup when you entered. If you didn't want to buy a cup, they had to let you in but you had to stand in this little roped off corner of the building where you couldn't see a thing. At the end of the entrance counter there was a big garbage can full of cups.

Like Eric said: "Answer = Free + $20.00 shipping and handling."

Spoke

[bd1308]

Dude, just make the pic of the 914 upside down, and call it something like Linear profile of the insect beetle.

[GWN7]

It wasn't the 914 shape that VW complained about it was the use of the letters "VW" in the sign..........

I remember there was a independant repair shop that had VW & Porsche repair in their signage....Porsche set them a letter...they ignored it....Porsche sent another letter.....and the shop ignored it.....next thing was a couple of Sherifs showed up with Porsches Lawyer and a crane truck. The signs were removed and seized.