Mustang Miss » 1970 Ford Mustang » Shelby Lawsuit to Rock the Cobra Replica Industry
Shelby Lawsuit to Rock the Cobra Replica Industry
Question:
Don’t you have that backwards? The new Celicas are uglier than sin! (There is an old expression for ya!) :0) <<think this is a little off the subject here, but is it just me or do the ‘99 Celica GTs resemble the ‘99 Mustangs? Just thought I’d mention it here with all this conterfeit talk. yep. Only, they look good. Did it right. 99 Mustangs are just a bucket of ugly. Thunder Snake #2
– -V6stang ‘83 GL V6 Bone Stock It’s mine – I like it. The one, the only: R.A.M.F.M. FAQ – http://www.geocities.com/ramfm_faq
Response:
<<think this is a little off the subject here, but is it just me or do the ‘99 Celica GTs resemble the ‘99 Mustangs? Just thought I’d mention it here with all this conterfeit talk. yep. Only, they look good. Did it right. 99 Mustangs are just a bucket of ugly. Thunder Snake #2
Response:
I guess they are ok if he is in the right mood. Or if cameras are rolling. Heck someone might have paid him to sign the things.
I guarantee that all those kit car owners paid Shelby for his signature on their dashboard. I know someone who built a gorgeous 427 replica. He used all the original AC british stuff like solenoids and electrical stuff. A very anal, very correct replica. At a car show he paid ole Shel something like 75 or 100 bucks to sign the dash. Erich
Response:
Hey Erich, yes, this is true, but Shelby will not ever sign the dash board on an brand of kit car, including several FFR’s all sport Mr Shelby’s signature. Yours In Fords, Bill S. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I guess they are ok if he is in the right mood. Or if cameras are rolling. Heck someone might have paid him to sign the things. I guarantee that all those kit car owners paid Shelby for his signature on their dashboard. I know someone who built a gorgeous 427 replica. He used all the original AC british stuff like solenoids and electrical stuff. A very anal, very correct replica. At a car show he paid ole Shel something like 75 or 100 bucks to sign the dash. Erich
Response:
Whether he owns the rights he claims is for a court to decide. If he does own the rights and has never licensed them to anyone he can choose not to license them at all (putting all that need a license out of business). If he does choose to license, the price he charges for a license it is totally up to him. The only stipulation is that he charge the same fee to all. That is the law. LJH 95GT
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hey Larry, Think of this as a trade dress issue, with Carroll dropping the ball over 20 years ago by abandoning his rights to the car, it’s shape, etc. Patents are only good under these circumstances for 17 years. Up until 1992, Carroll Shelby did not want anything to do with the Cobra, or the replica companies. Now, with that said, in late 1992, Carroll decided that he was going to ask(read this as overpriced extortion) for $1,000 a kit so he would "bless" each and every kit car that came out on the market, and that Shelby himself would set the prices for each kit car being sold(sounds like price fixing to me). I find this ironic now, that he is going after those companies that have found success in the lower range of the market, stating that these companies are feeding off the success of his "just found" 200 unused chassis’s from 1966", and that they are a serious threat to the company he helped start. Hmmmmmm, the company that he helped start does not own the rights(look it up online at the patent office) to the AC body, yes it owns the Cobra(R) name, but that’s it. Ford and Shelby fought in court, and Carroll gave in, as he was fighting a losing battle. In a gentleman’s agreement afterwards(for which Carroll paid Fords legal expenses), Ford allowed Shelby the exclusive rights to the Cobra name and Emblem design. At that same time, all replica companies stopped calling their cars Cobra’s, and started to call them "roadsters" and such. Why go after FFR, simple, they are the most "visible" kit car company in the market today. It will not be long before ERA, Unique,Superperformance(even though they are partially owned by Ford of the UK) and every other company out there is sucked in to this lawsuit. The kit car world is now reeling from this, and it will seriously effect free trade around the world no matter what type of business it is. Just my 2 cents worth on this subject. Yours In Fords, Bill S. PS: Intellectual property rights only extend to those who continue to hold them, according to patent office records, Shelby abandoned these rights after 1989, when he stopped sending in the appropriate paperwork to the US government. Don’t blame Carroll Shelby or Ford for protecting their intellectual property. Trademarks and designs are legal property protected by copyrights and patents. The problem here is that Factory Five Racing refused to license the intellectual property as other replica manufactures have done. If Factory Five is using someone else’s intellectual property without licensing it, they are literally stealing it. In my business, I developed a product which contained a small part of intellectual property owned by someone else. In order to legally sell my product, I had to negotiate a license agreement with the owner. The license agreement specified a royalty payment for each product I sold. My competition also had to use and license this intellectual property so we were affected the same. For a while one competitor tried to sell his product without paying royalties for the intellectual property. It wasn’t long before the owner exercised his rights and forced them to comply (and it cost them a lot more than if they had paid royalties from the start). The bottom line is that intellectual property is legally just like physical property. You can’t use it without the owner’s permission. LJH 95GT Just thought I would bring this to everyone’s attention, since some of you have thought about building a kit Cobra… BOSTON, July 17 /PRNewswire/ — With backing from Shelby American Inc., its equity partner, Venture Nevada, and together with Ford Motor Company, automotive manufacturing and racing legend Carroll Shelby has launched an aggressive lawsuit in Massachusetts Federal Court against Wareham-based Factory Five Racing, Inc., asserting trademark infringement, dilution and unfair competition claims. A parallel lawsuit has also been filed by Ford in the same court. The suit charges Factory Five with unlawful use of Ford and Shelby trademarks and other intellectual property rights. Factory Five, a rapidly growing, five year old company, has manufactured and sold more than 1,000 counterfeit copies of the famous Shelby 427 S/C, according to the suit. In an effort to curtail the misuse of the Shelby