Safir trying to trademark GT40 shape???

[scott]

Just read this in my latest Autoweek. Apparently this would put them in position to collect royalties on each GT from Ford. If the trademark goes through, any ideas on the implications for replica manufacturers and consumers? With Ford in hand, would they bother pursuing the replicas?

[frknfast]

This sounds like a replay of Carrol Shelby and Ford and against ALL replica makers. I am sure that if Safir gets their trademark they will go after ALL makers.
[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[Strike2]

Safir in my opinion have no chance.
The statute of limitations coupled with "the reason" for such a long delay in desiring to copyright something which is now public domane. The reason could only be that they saw no value it it previously and about 40 years later wanted to "cash in" on developement of it by many others.
Would not wash.

John

[frknfast]

Only time will tell [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[40 Bud]

I have to believe Ford will have something to say about Safirs rights to a trademark. With all the replicas that have been produced over the last 40 years with, no fuss, how could Safir claim anything? Which one to they want to trademark - virtually evry race car was a little different.

[Steve Toner]

Hmmmm....

[Mike Dozier]

These are the guys that wanted $ 40 million (?) from Ford
to use the GT40 name on the new car, and Ford declined.
IMHO Ford will pay $ 40 million in lawyers fees
before they give these guys a dime in royalties.

MikeD

[Chris Ardern]

This ought to be coming to a head soon. Anyone know where it stands?
Chris

[Ron Earp]

I was thinking about this the other day but I have not heard if there is a definitive ruling. Bob Wood from Safir is on the forum but I do not know if he has talked about this or not. Might not hurt to email or PM him about it if interested.

Presumably if the suit is successful Safir will be in a position to collect fees from companies and individuals that produce a car with a "GT40 Shape"? However, that may not be their intention since the suit revolved around the Ford GT name as well as the shape of that car.

Ron

[Charlie M]

Isn't this the same thing Shelby tried (and lost) with the Cobra shape?

Charlie

[Doug Sainlar]

Originally Posted by CharlieM

Isn't this the same thing Shelby tried (and lost) with the Cobra shape?
Charlie

Shelby may have lost the war, but he won some battles. Rumor has it FFR was going to release a GT40 replica, but in exchange for not being included in the list of defendants, they agreed not to do a 40 and instead developed their new GTM.

Safir may not have the $$ that Ferrari has, but look at what Ferrari has done with anyone trying to replicate one of their creations--there are none being created at this time, to my knowledge (although I suppose some might be waiting in the shadows).

Methinks perhaps all this "intellectual property" hogwash has gone too far--if someone can trademark a "shape", how long is it before someone can "copyright" a particular musical key or group of chords. That would have interesting effects on the music industry.

Reminds me of something I read in Popular Mechanics years ago--somebody had developed a set of ergonomic handles for the wheelbarrow. They went to the patent office for a patent on the handles and the patent office gave them a patent on the wheelbarrow--seems nobody had a patent on the wheelbarrow. It took a while for the patent office to fix that screw-up, but it illustrates what COULD happen if things take a nasty turn.

If that happens, I'm filing a patent application for the wheel. Read 'em and weep!!!

Doug

[charlie c]

Heh.... in college, in the early eighties, a friend and I invented a computer program that could stochastically "compose" music, running all night, and save the results to disk in a format that we could decode and print as sheet music.

Our scheme was to use as much cpu time as possible to generate every possible combination of twelve tones, print out reams of score per day, and start shipping off file boxes for copyright in secret...

... we would reveal our scheme with a massive injunction against ALL composers and musicians worldwide, and after our successful triumph in the world courts, we would establish the World Ministry of Music (with me as Minister of Music, natch...), where applicants could license any piece of music they wished....

.... as long as they paid us.

... perhaps, if we had implemented this scheme, today we would be in a position to deny Britney Spears a music license!

[DON S.]

Originally Posted by MikeDD

These are the guys that wanted $ 40 million (?) from Ford
to use the GT40 name on the new car, and Ford declined.
IMHO Ford will pay $ 40 million in lawyers fees
before they give these guys a dime in royalties.

MikeD

Oh oh, here we go again. This story about $40 million is an urban myth and complete BS. It was discussed in detail by Bob Wood of Safir here on GT40s.com about a year ago. Please do a search for that thread.

[Ron Earp]

This thead is from March of 2005 and Mike's comment is from that time period. The thread that covers the Ford/Safir deal that Bob wrote about it here:

Who owns the rights to the GT40 Body?

But that thread doesn't address the intentions of trademarking of the GT40 shape nor where that stands today in the legal system.

Ron

[JackW]

Safir may not have the $$ that Ferrari has, but look at what Ferrari has done with anyone trying to replicate one of their creations--there are none being created at this time, to my knowledge (although I suppose some might be waiting in the shadows).

I am sure I have seen an RCR very nice yellow Ferrari car. Or maybe it is just ferrari-esque.

Cheers

Jack

[Fran Hall RCR]

NO F-cars here just RCR's....

[Doug Clark]

No of course no one would dare copy a Ferrari

[Cliff Beer]

Perhaps we can refine the issue a little more here and understand things a little better. For starters, it is now clear that Safir has a complete and uncontested trademark of "GT40" in the trademark categories relevant to the automotive industry. If you want to do a little investigating on your own you can do what any intellectual property attorney does and go to the United State Patent and Trademark Office website (United States Patent and Trademark Office Home Page) and do a basic trademark search for "GT40" and you can see all the detail.

Trademarking a name (plain text or stylized) doesn't, by itself, generally provide any protection over intellectual property which consists of more than just the name. Said another way, the thing - a replica GT40 for example - is not protected pursuant to trademark law, rather, just the name applied to the thing. The people who get in trouble with Ferrari, for example, are more culpable in the eyes of the civil law courts because they tend to utilize "Ferrari" (a trademarked and protected name) as a descriptor to the thing they are selling.

Protecting the thing (not just the name applied to the thing) is much more complicated and usually falls within the area of patent law. It is very difficult by the simple nature of patent law to patent a shape such as the lines of a car body. Patent law lends itself well to protections based upon technical descriptions and functional descriptions, not merely a physical form. So, net, it is very difficult for automotive companies to protect an overall car shape and generally have limited success in so doing. This is one reason why Tornado, CAV, RCR can sell a car that is identical to the original GT40 in form and not get in trouble with Safir (who hold the "GT40" trademark).

Hope this helps a little.

[Fran Hall RCR]

I did hear some time ago that Safir only had the rights to "GT40" in the USA ...not Worldwide...

I wonder if this is still true.