Ford's latest attempt at sueing

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:55 am

Just saw this at TRS, can't imagine Ford going after everyonw with a "Trademark" name domain. They got to be desperate.
Dave

TRS is being attacked by Ford Motor Company!

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Ford is making me change the name of The Ranger Station and pay them $5,000. I have to sign an agreement as well and they want it all by the 19th of this month.

Ford feels that we are infringing on their trademarks and violating their intellectual property rights because we use 'Ranger' in our name.

Apparently it's ok for Ranger Boats, Polaris Ranger and the Lone Ranger.

We are not the first to get attacked by this:

http://www.michiganmustang.com/fordattacks.html

The question is, where do we go from here?

How are we possibly going to rename the site and still be able to attract Ranger owners, when Ford doesn't want us using their name.

To clarify:

Ford wants $5,000 AND therangerstation.com domain name.

FYI, Ford's Public Relations contact page is here: https://secure.ford.com/footer/conta...=PublicAffairs

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:36 am

Wow hope we're not next.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 11:16 am

The tread was started yesterday by Jim Oaks the site admin at 5:10 PM, they are at 50 pages so far with 330 viewing right now. The same lawyers sued a business out West a couple of years ago because he had the name "Bug Auto" for his repair shop. WV of America went after the shop. Just keep an eye out, Ford went after that Michigan Mustang club.
Dave

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:12 pm

I would've thought Ford was interested in getting people to buy their vehicles, not to piss off their loyal customer/enthusiasts that support them. That just sounds like bad PR to me. And to top it off for a measily $5000. To any one of us, that's a lot. But to FMC, that's barely paying for the lawyers stirring up this mess.

Malcolm, maybe you should put up a picture of a Motor Boat as the icon at the top-left of the screen?? LOL.

I'm taking down the V8-Ranger.com logo out of my sig so they don't want to say that's a TM infringement too.

Malcolm you might even want to move/hide/delete your "Christmas Stocking Stuffer" thread too...and when done, delete this comment. LOL

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:35 pm

Now they're getting to the bottom of the whole mess. I guess a couple of months ago TRS was selling un-authorized Ford decals and Blue Oval stickers. Lawyers and Ford really don't care if the name Ranger is used but don't connect it with the Ford name, especially if you are selling them. Someone really sirred up a hornets nest over there!
Dave

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:20 pm

That's making more sense. Although it's still scary to think that Ford would do this. But I guess if they find out about infringements on the name, they are legally obligated to defend it. I'm betting the law is written such that if they don't do anything about it, then they are consciously allowing the behavior and thus waiving their rights to take action at some future date.

plowboy34 · Post by **plowboy34** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 6:00 pm

Here is the latest on this deal from the horses mouth.

Our (my) Agreement With Ford (remedy)

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A while back I had started making decals such as the old FORD tailgate letters, and offering some other decals for Ranger enthusiasts such as the Ranger windshield banner with the Ford logos on each side of it.

Although it was intended to be used as a way to keep The Ranger Station up and running and not a method of becoming independently wealthy...it was vilolating Fords trademarks.

I have talked to Scott Monty from Ford Motor Company and have agreed to:

1) Stop selling the decals since I do not have a trademark license to sell

2) Agree that the 'Ranger' is a product of Ford.

3) Not display any ads on The Ranger Station that would promote a competitor (Example: Banner ad for the new Chevy Colorado, etc)

4) Not use the site to make disparaging comments about Ford (AKA - Anti Ford Site)

5) Not turn The Ranger Station name over to anyone else.

I believe that's about it. I'm waiting from a letter from their attorney.

In return, Ford will allow us to keep The Ranger Station name and will not require that I pay the $5000.00 that the attorneys were asking for.

Scott went on to tell me that they recognize and support their fan websites and I would suggest that any other website owner/administrator reading this will be OK if they judge themselves on the items I had listed above. If you have ad banners you may want to make sure you have Fords competition filtered out.

I would like to say thanks to those that emailed Ford and spread the word. The attention and support from other enthusiats greatly helped in getting this resolved quickly.

I would ask that anyone who has posted about this on another website link the discussions here and ask that the moderator on that site lock the topic.

I also want to thank the other site owners for their support.

Warpig Racing · Post by **Warpig Racing** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:13 pm

Wow! So they also had a problem with making the F O R D stickers that went in the tailgate letters. Why not just sell those seperate?

"F" costs $3
"O" costs $3
"R" costs $3
"D" costs $3

Just dont sell them as a package deal. LOL

jbaer619 · Post by **jbaer619** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:53 am

yeah wow that kinda makes me lose some faith in ford... well I mean there isnt really anything else I would buy, but why attack the people that love their product so much they spend much of their time discussing it on the internet????

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:11 am

It's just another sad example of lawyers ruling the world.

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:28 am

Actually that one post up above says they were making Ford decals and badges etc. and selling them. Of course they're going to get sued for that. Any company would put a stop to that.

plowboy34 · Post by **plowboy34** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:32 pm

Malcolm is right, they didn't get in trouble for using the Ford name as an internet site or talking about them. They actually were selling Ford trademark items, I don't blame Ford I would have done the same thing. It would be just like somebody besides Malcolm selling V8-ranger.com stuff, I don't think Malcolm would like it and I wouldn't blame him.