FORD REQUESTING NAMES FROM E-BAY FOR SELLERS OF UNLISCENSED NERCHANDISE

[paul alflen]

IS THIS STORY TRUE? I HEARD IT ON THE NEWS YESTERDAY!

[paul alflen]

SHOULD BE MERCHANDISE, SORRY MY TYPO!!!

[3men2s]

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y12/m05/i23/s01

[Eshaver]

Chrysler did the same thing in North Carolinia and later in Maryland back in 1990. I was representing a couple of Aftermarket retail stores here in Virginia part time . Police , F B I and some looked to be Customs Agents just came in unannounced in a car show and seized anthing Chrysler Branded from all the vendors and then hauled them off too. I had to get one friend out of the jail on bond . Oh they shut him down alright , but good . Ed Shaver

[Intmd8r]

The only thing surprising about this post (to me) is that Ford is only now acting on stopping fake e-Bay ######. Too many respected OEM and aftermarket companies have gone out of business due to high sales of fake merchandise bearing their names. I say that it looks good on the specific 13 usesrs being called out by Ford.

[Casey]

IS THIS STORY TRUE? I HEARD IT ON THE NEWS YESTERDAY!

Sounds like it is, but it's only for 13 users:

""Ford Motor Co. wants eBay and PayPal to turn over data on 13 users the automaker accuses of selling fake or unlicensed Ford parts on the online auction site,"

[Casey]

One more thing, Paul. I think you were the one who uses all caps because it's hard to read otherwise, but you can change the font/display size to however large you like. Not sure what you're typing one, but usually holding down the "Control" or "Command" key and tapping the "+" key will enlarge the display for easier viewing.

[Mike Kucaba]

The bigger the government .... the smaller the citizen.

[Darren B]

My question is how can you counterfeit an auto part? I was thinking it had to do with decals or just using their logo? and im sure the 13 people know who they are talking about now with that out in the open and are probably taking the stuff of ebay anyway. If its copyright infringement they can go after it due to intellectual property. I found that out in the graphics biz I had at one time (reall scary stuff if your on the recieving end of it), and copyright is a gray area all around even if you change up the design a bit. What really cracks me up is them being a car maker, how many times do you see a type of car out there with a specific style of lets say a tail light design and then down the road you see the exact same style on another car, or the shape of the rearend, hood, roofline and on and on and on, now i know its not the same exact down to the last inch or mm, but the thing is they used the idea. I never see car makers in court over that stuff, unless im just not looking.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Darren B

[Eshaver]

Darrin, it's easier to counterfit parts than one may imagine . Using cheaper materials , not certifying it through D O T regulations , not even using enough material so as to do a function properly. One example was when the dallas Morning News newspaper discovered a load of A/C filters that didn't have enough paper in them to even bother filtering motor oil once . Several Big Chain stores in the Dallas area were finially alerted as to a shipment of filters that were discovered as Chineese manufactured . Ed Shaver

[Harry P.]

Cheap knock-off sheetmetal parts have been used by shady auto body shops for years. They cost less, but they charge the customer for OEM replacement parts.

[LAone]

it's mainly to those that are making money on their name. had they not put the ford name on it, they wouldnt worry about ford going after them.

[Abell82]

How long do you think it will be, before they go afer resin casters decal makers...etc.

[sjordan2]

How long do you think it will be, before they go afer resin casters decal makers...etc.

That's already been happening. If you look at an earlier thread on this forum from a few months ago, you'll see that one of our members - a guy with a small home business making scale truck decals - was pounced on by Kenworth, who sent him a cease-and-desist letter, which he reproduced on this forum. They told him to stop making Kenworth logo decals and to destroy all of his existing inventory, which he did.

[sports850]

BMW has shut down countless small businesses using the shape or image or name of the classic mini , they bought the rights to it when they bought the name for the new mini and have ruthlessly protected it . It's caused a huge backlash against BMW from the classic mini community .

[Joe Handley]

Darrin, it's easier to counterfit parts than one may imagine . Using cheaper materials , not certifying it through D O T regulations , not even using enough material so as to do a function properly. One example was when the dallas Morning News newspaper discovered a load of A/C filters that didn't have enough paper in them to even bother filtering motor oil once . Several Big Chain stores in the Dallas area were finially alerted as to a shipment of filters that were discovered as Chineese manufactured . Ed Shaver

I seem to remember reading something in Hot Rod back in the 80's about how the Big Three going after companies that were doing things like that and then putting the automakers' parts division's name on them and selling those through flea markets and such. IIRC it even forced Mopar to change the box graphics to something that was trickier to copy.

Cheap knock-off sheetmetal parts have been used by shady auto body shops for years. They cost less, but they charge the customer for OEM replacement parts.

Not sure if it's still the case, but State Farm used to insist that those parts be used on non-premium (as in not Lexus, Caddy, Merc, BMW, ect) cars and trucks so they could save money. Back in the mid 90's one of the local news channels (either NBC 5 or ABC 7) did an investigation and talked to owners who wrecked their "lesser" cars that were repaired with cheap parts. Some testing company even showed how poor of quality these parts were by taking a second gen Taurus and putting the State Farm prefered front bumper on it, hitting it with some kind of pneumatic ram in a way to simulate a parking lot oops which shattered it, then did the same with a Ford stock replacement and it just flexed and returned to it's original shape.

IIRC in some cases they still want the body shops to use serviceable junkyard parts where ever possible to save themselves money too.

[Intmd8r]

That's already been happening. If you look at an earlier thread on this forum from a few months ago, you'll see that one of our members - a guy with a small home business making scale truck decals - was pounced on by Kenworth, who sent him a cease-and-desist letter, which he reproduced on this forum. They told him to stop making Kenworth logo decals and to destroy all of his existing inventory, which he did.

Most copyright fine print usually say something like "this logo may not be reproduced without the consent of the owner". I'm sure if this member made the odd logo on personal projects, Kenworth probably wouldn't have cared as much. Not knowing too much about the specifics of this example, this quote implies that this member was reproducing the logos without permison for profit. You simply can't do that and Kenworth would be within their right to ask him to stop. I would be pissed if someone was selling decals with my name on them without my permision too.

Now the ethics of going after a scale modle usiness vs. an 3rd party counterfit part suplier is a completely different topic....

[Crazy Ed]

I think all Ford is doing is reasserting it's ownership of its Logo.

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2012/05/22/Ford-Regains-Blue-Oval-Logo-052212.aspx

[Jim B]

My sister is a VP over at Matell for the Barbie line. We had a discussion about this a while back, and she told me that their Legal Dept. will go after anybody even using the name Barbie. Doesn't make a difference who they are. Why? Because if the don't, it actually sets a legal precident, and can be used by the defence against Matell in the next case, "You didnt go after XYZ, so why are you going after my client?" These companies are protecting their intelectual property by going after people who copy thier parts or logos without permission. If it has their name or logo on it, it can be taken as the company authorized he manufacturer of that part, and if it fails; well, that just another can of legal worms!

The two companies that I know of that are probably the must agressive in copyright infringement are Caterpiller & Harley-Davidson. In fact, the Pentagon was even getting involved with this for military models. They wanted the model manufacturers to pay a fee to reproduce their equipment. That made military modelers "really happy"!

[Mark]

IIRC in some cases they still want the body shops to use serviceable junkyard parts where ever possible to save themselves money too.

I'm pretty certain insurance laws differ from one state to another.

In 2006, someone rammed the back of my 2004 Dakota and bent the rear bumper. I was told that NY State law allows the insurance company's estimate to include used OEM parts if: (a) the vehicle is not "current year" (2006 in my case), or (if it is "current year" but has more than 5,000 miles on it. In my case, they could not locate a suitable used bumper, so they had to pay for a new one. While checking prices on used vs. new bumpers, most of the used ones I came across included in their description the disclaimer "not suitable for insurance repair". I don't know what that encompassed, possibly these units had been bent previously and then straightened. Used bumpers that would have been acceptable were priced the same as new ones (or so close that shipping would have made them cost more).

Sometimes the OEM parts aren't kept in stock very long, so used and aftermarket are the only available options. My niece's 2003 Cavalier was struck and nearly totalled (really should have been; the estimate was within a couple hundred dollars of a total loss...and after repairs were started, additional work had to be done that pushed the total higher). This was in 2006 or 2007. Even then, a new front bumper fascia wasn't available from GM, and at the time no good used front end sheetmetal was available in the area. So she got new sheetmetal but an aftermarket fascia, which differs visibly in some minor detail.

In a case where only the fascia would be damaged (and none of the sheetmetal) the auto parts dealer will rarely split up the complete front end to sell just the fascia, headlamp(s), or one fender. The whole will often be worth more than the sum of the parts, and will be easier to sell.

[sjordan2]

Most copyright fine print usually say something like "this logo may not be reproduced without the consent of the owner". I'm sure if this member made the odd logo on personal projects, Kenworth probably wouldn't have cared as much. Not knowing too much about the specifics of this example, this quote implies that this member was reproducing the logos without permison for profit. You simply can't do that and Kenworth would be within their right to ask him to stop. I would be pissed if someone was selling decals with my name on them without my permision too.

Now the ethics of going after a scale modle usiness vs. an 3rd party counterfit part suplier is a completely different topic....

Absolutely. Another element to this is that the manufacturers have a duty to (a) protect the investments of authorized licensees who have paid for the use of that property and, b, protect future income for licensable products.

Edited May 26, 2012 by sjordan2

[Harold]

The Chinese are great at counterfeiting. James and Jeremy from Top Gear were in Beijing on a recent episode, and were amazed at all the bogus merchandise. From knockoffs of the BMW X5 to fake Starbucks. As Jeremy opined, "It would seem then, that the phrase 'copyright infringement' doesn't translate too terribly well into Mandarin".

[Jim B]

I don't think the Chinese have the same notion of copyrights as the West does. You've put it out to the public; therefore it can be copied. The Pentagon is dealing with counterfit Chinese parts in the military supply chain right now.

[Draggon]

The G/F needed a fender for her Civic awhile back. Not knowing, she opted for the most inexpensive ( read cheap china copy ) option. Not being the most carefull driver, she hit my driveway with the front bumper. It came out fine, but the cheap fender folded up. Now she knows different!

[sjordan2]

Maybe it has a lot to do with your insurance provider. My Chevy dealer required that I had to use GM parts for my Corvette or they wouldn't fix it, and State Farm complied.

This doesn't work so well when the parts are no longer available from GM, and it took 3 months for me to talk the dealer into using a nose clip from a salvage yard that I found for myself in Phoenix. (You also can't find a correct glass rear hatch for a C4 Corvette after 1992) But I got a lot of mileage out of a rental car.

Edited May 26, 2012 by sjordan2