53 replies to this topic

[flamejob]

Anybody fancy organising a "let's be a pain in the @rse blocking the entrances to the BMW dealerships with real Minis day"?

Yay..

*mental note to bring correct car*

[Garagiste]

LOL, a double agent!

[Jake Blues]

ANY company would of done the same do you equally hate them?

Yes

And me...it's called bullying and it is evil.....no wonder I have such a loathing for lawyers...............(if you are a lawyer reading this, then yes, I Do mean you, there is absolutely no excuse for treating people this way!)

[Dan]

Perhaps we should back away from all this BMW bashing a little, they could shut us down too you know. :'(

Oh and:

I hope that Williams F1 blow them into the weeds this year.

Frank Williams is probably one of the people who actually ranks lower on my list than BMW and lawyers. Nasty little man.

[998dave]

Legally speaking though if BMW don't contest the trademark or copyright then they loose the right to hold it as a trademark or copyright, meaning if they hadn;t contested the use of the shape by 'mylittlecar' then anyone could have built mini shaped stuff and they couldn't have done anything about it!

Just so you know how the law works there.

D

[taffy1967]

im sorry for the loss of the people involved.

but im afraid its standard practice for any company to protect their product. sure in this case there wasnt much threat to them but like mentioned above if theyre seen to turn a blind eye with one person then theyre opening the flood gates for others.

people seem to be jumping on the "Hate BMW bandwaggon" a bit (not talking about the people who lost out to BMW here), ANY company would of done the same do you equally hate them?

Well Rover never treated the Mini Specialists or Classic Mini Community in this way.

And you may be interested in this little letter I sent BMW yesterday and the reply I got from them today too:-

Here's my letter, okay it's not great but you get the idea and it's true that my misses was thinking about marketing the 3D Mini Decoupage pictures (she made several), but nobody was interested so their gathering dust in our attic now:-

Dear BMW,

I own a 1990 Rover Mini Cooper 1275cc and I want to know where I can take it for servicing and where can I obtain parts?

I hear you own the rights to the name and the shape of both the original Mini and the car your currently producing which is also called a MINI. So can I entrust and rely on a BMW dealership for servicing, repairs and spare parts?

Another thing I need to ask is my wife has made several decoupage (3D) pictures, which are from photo copied pictures of 1960's & 1970's Mini brochure covers.

Is my wife allowed to market these in any way since they show the 3D shape of the Mini (but not the name) and would she also be allowed to use the original Mini shape in a painting that she plans creating at college?

I do hope you can help me out, because we don't want to infringe any laws, but i'm in desperate need of a service for my Mini and there are no Rover dealerships in my area any more.

I live in Treorchy, which is part of the Rhondda Valleys of South Wales, UK.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Darryl Turner

And here's their reply:-

Dear Mr Turner

Thank you for contacting MINI Customer Information.

We were interested to read that you own a Classic MINI - a car that needs, as you rightly say, to be treasured in order that it might spend many more years gracing the highways and byways of our country.

Please accept our sincere apologies that we no longer have any jurisdiction over the Classic MINI and are therefore sadly unable to advise you further on servicing or on parts. Equally, your wife would need to contact Rover direct as per the various contacts we are showing below.

We can confirm that all rights to the Classic Mini are held by MG Rover and would advise that should you wish to contact them, you have various options as shown below:
Rover Hotline 08457 186 186
For general enquiries, please call their customer hotline.
Customer Helpdesk 0845 456 0301
If you have any issues you have not been able to resolve with your dealer, please call their Customer Helpdesk.
MGR Direct Used Sales 0121 482 5961.
For any enquiries regarding MG Rover Direct used cars.
Alternatively, contact them at the following address:

MG Rover Contact Centre
General Office Block
PO Box 41
Longbridge
Birmingham
B31 2TB

We very much hope that this information is of some help to you but if we can assist you further, please do contact a member of the MINI Customer Information Team.
Yours sincerely

MINI UK

Elfriede McNeal
Product Information Advisor

Ellesfield Avenue
Bracknell
RG12 8TA

Tel: 0800 083 6464
Fax: 0870 5050 206
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.mini.co.uk

So figure that one out, are they patrionising me and the many other Mini enthusiasts who have no doubt also sent similar letters, or are they talking C**p and lying to My Little Car Ltd?

Oh and I doubt there'd be anyone home at Longbridge now?

Edited by taffy1967, 09 February 2007 - 07:58 PM.

[MLC bad people]

Legally speaking though if BMW don't contest the trademark or copyright then they loose the right to hold it as a trademark or copyright, meaning if they hadn;t contested the use of the shape by 'mylittlecar' then anyone could have built mini shaped stuff and they couldn't have done anything about it!

Just so you know how the law works there.

D

Dear sir,
You repeatedly in your signature text/graphic refer to trademarked words and display at least 2 trademarked shapes. This could lead people to believe you are in some way affiliated to or authorised by the owners of those trademarks.

Do not argue that what you do is a hobby, we are not interested as our expensive solicitors have despatched this message to you and will destroy any attempt at defence you make, plus make sure you loose much more money. We do not give a damn about what you say to your friends about this.

You have infringed trademarks, you will not be allowed to argue the point and you will pay suitable costs and damages
Signed xxx





Not getting at you personally, but what Deb did at MLC was effectively the same, she had to charge something to cover the cost of some expensive machines & materials don't grow on trees. She didn't take any income in 3 years, spent 100's of hours developing her own designs. Pretty barmy really, but barmy isn't illegal yet. Barmy and Mini seem to go together quite a lot.

All the patterns/stock may have to be destroyed & if so she will have to pay a solicitor to witness an oath to say that its gone, and may be witness the destruction itself. She may have to pay more in costs than she has so, oh dear, bankruptcy.

One day, you might receive the above message, no one can 100% say it would never happen. Then, having had the action taken against you, just wait for the postman to call with that special letter saying what is going to happen to you. Might arrive tomorrow, next week or next year. You just wait for it.

[Marky Tizz]

Surely you can go to like a Crown Court or something, especially since seeing the above letter about the "we no longer have jurisdiction"....
Put 2+2 together and with a decent set of brains you could get out of it?
If not and I'm being stupid, really sorry, I'm just tryign to look on the bright side....

[minislapper]

Taffy

Is that letter on proper headed paper?

I'm well confused now !!!

[MLC bad people]

Surely you can go to like a Crown Court or something, especially since seeing the above letter about the "we no longer have jurisdiction"....
Put 2+2 together and with a decent set of brains you could get out of it?
If not and I'm being stupid, really sorry, I'm just tryign to look on the bright side....

B*W turnover £32,000,000,000

They are good customers of most of the papers and mags (advertising) so don't count on them

They categorically own the legal rights to the trademarks listed on the MLC web site you can check it out here http://www.patent.gov.uk/

Crown court = solicitors = big bill and it would be of no use what-so-ever

You are not stupid, but like most people today you are controlled by very large companies and don't (usually) realise it until perhaps its too late

[Marky Tizz]

I don't like to think I'm controlled
/me hates corporate *******.
But what I was trying to say was, surely you have a case if they're also claim to not have any jurisdiction? Which is it? Do they or do they not?
I see where you're coming from regarding the magazine front... maybe get onto the mini mags? I'm fairly sure they don't advertise much BMW stuff....

[taffy1967]

Taffy

Is that letter on proper headed paper?

I'm well confused now !!!

Nope it's an e-mail I received today, which is sitting in my Yahoo mail account in-tray.

It came from:-

[email protected]

I had sent my e-mail letter to these people at BMW:-

[email protected]
domains@bmw.de (Aimee Gessner, BMWs senior trademark counsel)
jochen.volkmer@bmw.de (Dr Jochen Volkmer)

Edited by taffy1967, 09 February 2007 - 08:23 PM.

[Garagiste]

Yeah, but as they feature the M word in the title, then B*W has them by the b*lls.
I think I might write to them and suggest they get Jade Goody to do some advertising for them it would go nicely with the public image they are putting out.
Enough from me on the subject I think, (except to say that Sir Frank is a bally hero!)

[MLC bad people]

Darryl's letter is great & proves the point that B*W don't want anything to do with the smelly, rusty, unreliable little cars themselves - but the reply has no legal meaning at all.

B*W are completely legally correct.

They own the Rover trademarks too but it doesn't look like MG

[taffy1967]

Darryl's letter is great & proves the point that B*W don't want anything to do with the smelly, rusty, unreliable little cars themselves - but the reply has no legal meaning at all.

B*W are completely legally correct.

They own the Rover trademarks too but it doesn't look like MG

Then I Imagine BMW were very pleased with this free BBC coverage they got for their ugly death traps:-

The BINI Watchdog Report

I'd rather a smelly, rusty, unreliable little car than be in flames myself anyway!

So I still don't understand why their going after My Little Car Ltd?

So are you a BINI/BMW lover then MLC Bad People?

Edited by taffy1967, 09 February 2007 - 08:31 PM.