Dear Ford owners: Make calendars. Just don't use logos.

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McLaren

McLaren

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Or you'll get sued.
http://www.bmcforums.com/showthread.php?t=42402

I got some more info from the folks at cafepress and according to them, a law firm representing Ford contacted them saying that our calendar pics (and our club's event logos - anything with one of our cars in it) infringes on Ford's trademarks which include the use of images of THEIR vehicles. Also, Ford claims that all the images, logos and designs OUR graphics team made for the BMC events using Danni are theirs as well. Funny, I thought Danni's title had my name on it ... and I thought you guys owned your cars ... and, well ... I'm not even going to get into how wrong and unfair I feel this whole thing is as I'd be typing for hours, but I wholeheartedly echo everything you guys have been saying all afternoon. I'm not letting this go un-addressed and I'll keep you guys posted as I get to work on this.

I'm sorry, but at this point we will not be producing the 2008 BMC Calendar, featuring our 2007 Members of the Month, solely due to Ford Motor Company's claim that THEY own all rights to the photos YOU take of YOUR car. I hope to resolve this soon, and be able to provide the calendar and other BMC merchandise that you guys want and deserve! This thread will remain open for you to comment however you wish, and I'll update it as needed.

Thanks for all your support of the BMC!!
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I just read this on another forum, not to mention that right now their stocks are near an all time low, apparently.
Pretty ridiculous, Ford blows.
 
Sounds like Ford has been hanging around RIAA people too much. The whole you bought it but you can't do whatever you want with it philosophy.
 
And they were doing so well, too, they had to go and pull an Archie Comics/Union Pacific on everyone...

(Both companies have VERY restrictive use on their trademarks. Archie infamously so, especially in the Fanfiction area...)
 
Can they fight Ford for the rights to the pictures they took? Is it legal for them to have a right to the picture of your car that you took with your camera? Do they own every horribly terrible picture too?

You all better go erase all the Ford pics in the DYSAGT thread.
 
Taking pictures of your car isn't illegal.
Using those pictures in a calender that is for publication (or sale) is illegal.
Whether or not you own the car in the picture, when you publish the like-ness of a car in a calender you could be infringing on legal boundries.
My suggestion would be to ensure the calender is free to everyone online, then you might get away with featuring the cars in question. :ouch:
 
How is that illegal? They're promoting their forum with pictures of their cars. No where are they claiming it's the official Ford Mustang calendar.

All I see is Ford being an ass.
FerrariChat & LamboPower members have done something similar at local events, and neither Ferrari nor Lamborghini ever pulled this stunt. Even the photographer of "Fast Expensive Cars" calendar never went through this kind of action.
 
Kent
Taking pictures of your car isn't illegal.
Using those pictures in a calender that is for publication (or sale) is illegal.
Whether or not you own the car in the picture, when you publish the like-ness of a car in a calender you could be infringing on legal boundries.
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This would make perfect sense if we were talking about photos of sculptures, paintings, or some other form of art. When the original item's value is in its visual aesthetics, selling a photo of that item hurts the creator's ability to sell their item.

However, I thought Ford was in the business to sell cars, not mobile sculptures. How this calendar could have possibly hurt their business is beyond me. What's ironic is that the fit Ford is throwing over the calendar is going to hurt their business.
 
The North American Motoring forum puts out a calender featuring member's Mini Coopers and Mini actually supports them buy purchasing ad space on it to help fund it. Why would Ford want to irk it's loyalist?
 
Who knows...

One day Ford is totally awesome and stuffs a 340 BHP twin-turbo V6 in a Taurus, the next they're suing their fans. Great.

My guess is that Ford will lose this battle in court. Why has it not been a problem for 40+ years and now all of a sudden it is? They're going to have to sue a lot of people if this is the case...
 
I agree with Wolfe.

And from now on, if you want to be featured on a calendar photo, you must be in your birthday suit. Or you'll have fashion designers, and companies like Nike and Polo coming after you with all they got!
 
This law firm, was it directly connected to Ford, or acting semi-independently?

It's a bit strange... MazdaForums has had some run-ins with the legal eagles serving Mazda USA, also... only to have everything smoothed over after talking to Mazda PR itself... and our local Ford is very supportive of club activities (at least we've never been sued for using the word "Ford" on our website and using pictures of Fords to promote it...

It's probably more of a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, and the idiots down in legal not knowing bat**** about good PR.

It seems, though, that BMC just folded over without a fight... they could have pressed it... see... Ford may have trademark rights, but you're perfectly within your rights to take pictures of your own car and sell those pictures... as a zillion car magazines have done since time immemorial... The only legal impediment is if you build a car in the likeness of one of their products and sell it with their brand name on it.

It's just a petty little law office. They should go ahead and print the calendar.
 
Ford has resolved the issue and explains the situation.
fomocona
I monitor several webpages on behalf of Ford and I hope you don't mind me posting a comment here. The calendar issue was a misunderstanding and it has been resolved. Ford does not intend to alienate any enthusiasts clubs and that's why we moved quickly to clear the air. For more details please see the Black Mustang Club official website BMC Calendars: Approved by Ford & For Sale! - BMC Forums - Black Mustang Club . We appreciate our loyal customers and Mustang enthusiasts such as the Black Mustang Club members.
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That's better, but it's still odd. You'd think it would be fine as long as the calendar didn't appear to be "official," intentionally or unintentionally.
 
Why does the quote link back to a 2003 thread in the XBOX section with teh dr1f7rz and they r sp33k?:odd:?

That's good to hear though. Glad I have less reason to question Ford's reasoning for the time being.
 
That post probably comes from a forum using the same/similar software as GTP, so the "quote" function added the post code (777305) just like it does here. Since McLaren copied the code along with the quote, GTPlanet's software links you to the corresponding post (777305) on this site.
 
I kinda figured that this issue was a misunderstanding.

Good thing it got cleared up... but man, it took nearly sixty to seventy pages of thread before they responded!
 

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