Ford is suing companies for use of Mustang name?

#221
Scott Adams (I think that's the "Dilbert" author) was a Engineer for Pacific Telecom; and, until I heard that on Leno, I really didn't "get" some of his humor. After I heard about his previous employment background, I started reading his stuff while "wearing" my work mindset - It all started to make sense.
Understand that my work uniform includes a shirt with a big blue Q over the pocket; and that my company bought me along with another telco (USWest). It's even more interesting that our most previous CEO (not the one before him whose gotta pay $90-something mill to maybe stay out of jail) had prior to that, gotten Ameritech ready for purchase by SBC Telecom (now AT&T); and that our present CEO had previously prepared PacBell (again, Scott Adams' previous employer) ready for sale to, hmmmmm.... SBC/AT&T! Makes you kind of wonder, huh?

My present supervisor retired from PacBell-SBC. I have no clue what she was thinking upon jumping out of their frying pan into our fire, and I bet she has her doubts after 3 months in what passes for a system here. Anyway, she either heard of or slightly knew of Adams; and apparently early on in the "life of Dilbert" he was in fact asked to make a decision between continuing the comic or keeping his job. You may have noticed that the strip is still in production........

I'm probably going to get in that kind of trouble myself fairly soon, as I've caught myself telling people (at work) that "we work in a Dilbert cartoon". Oh, well, at my present state of mind; if "the word" ever comes down to me, I'll seriously consider following Adam's decision to "explore other career opportunities". I've been unemployed before, and my track record has always been one of actually coming out ahead in the next job.

Even if it does make me feel like a rat jumping overboard after the big ice-cube flood on the Titanic...... :nonono:
 

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#222
i used to work for SBC in the guise of Cingular, when SBC wireless and Bell south wireless "merged" i say in the guise of cingular because when the two wireless companies merged the cingular employess were left out of the loop on any of the benefits of working for either of the "parent" companies, meaning no stock option in either one, none of the same vacation, insurance or other benefits of the "parent" companies, we didn't even get the same union contracts sow our pay scale was different as well, meaning that we got payed about half of what other customer service people in the "parent" companies got paid.

i was fired because of my disabilities about a month before the with"at&t" wireless became final and about three months before the whole SBC buyout of "AT&T" landline became final which would again join the wireless companies with the parent companies and new union contracts, which to my understanding won't happen until the previous union contracts runout.

what all that really means is that got screwed first by being fired for my disability and second because i got double screwed in the fact that i was still a cingular wireless employee when i got fired.
 
#223
Edbert said:
Very true. But I don't get too caught up with the "assembled here" part as many do. If assembly and manufacture mean the most to you then you have to examine the components, even those assembled here are made up of many foreign parts, that is true no matter the marque.

When a J A P company claims we should buy their cars since they are now assembling them here it makes me want to puke. The ONLY reasons they do it are to lower their costs for importing them, plus get a little marketing bonus thrown in. Where the real benefit of buying American car company cars is from the thousands of higher-level (professional) employees they hire, each one of which earns much more than an assembly-line person, and which stock exchange they are traded on. Support the NYSC or the Nikkei, your call.
Click to expand...

Here's an interesting side note to this. We were out taking pics for my photography site and saw something we wanted a pic of. Happened to park next to a chevy dealer with a brand new HHR panel..uh..truck? sitting up front. I proceded to take the pic while my hubby looked at the HHR. It's assembled in MEXICO and made of more than 50% "foreign" parts, and the remaining less than 50% are American AND CANADIAN. Apparently, Canada is no longer a forgien country. No offense, but F the white collar you-know-whats that a lot of times are counting beans and figuring out how to make more money by farming out more labor to foregin countries.

And I am still not gonna buy a new Ford. :notnice:
 
#224
Unfortunately, that's the way of the market these days. You have to look beyond the brand name and whether it was made in "Meximericanada" (Thank you, Glenn Beck) of Chinese parts; look beyond that to the quality of the product.

I have always loved "my" Fords; but that Big Dog which may someday replace my F150 is right now a tossup between the Dodge/Cummins and the Silverado/Sierra HD with the Isuzu Marine based Duramax. The Powerstroke presently is not in the picture because Ford and Navistar are too busy flailing at one another to concentrate on delivering a quality product (IMHO). Besides; have you looked at an '07-'08 SuperDuty? They've become the front-runner in defining the term "FUGLY!" (a title previously held by the '04-'06 Chebbie Truck).

With Toyotas and Nissans being built in Texas, Tennesee and (one of the Carolina's) of partially Japanese/partially U.S./partially European parts, and me looking at a Sanden A/C compressor to replace the broken "lawnmower engine" York/Tecumseh unit in the Coog (not to mention my wife's product of the Daimler/Chrysler machine); I can't realistically scream "Buy American" anymore. Now, the "Country of Origin" doesn't matter as much as the finished product; because that's what my paycheck buys, and what my paycheck pays to maintain.

This has absolutely nothing to do with my own employer's "outsourced" Tech Support group. When a Broadband customer (who has no clue how "what he just bought" works), needs help; it would be good to have him talking to somebody for whom English is not a second language! When I get the pleasure of speaking to "Duayne in Boise" and I just know I'm hearing a camel barking in the background; even I lose confidence :rolleyes:
 
#225
On the subject of DD's, I wish they still made the Baja, because I would buy another one when our current one gets up into the high miles. It's a freakin amazing little thing-muds better than our old Bronco (can I still say that?) due to the AWD system, corners like a race car and red line is WAY up in the RPM's. The interior is really nice and the fit and finish is way nicer that most of the domestics we've looked at. As it stands though, we are considering a beater winter car and the new Challenger as the next DD. That's a GORGEOUS car (seen it driving around the past two WDC's and fell in love). F**D doesn't make anything I'd want right now anyway, even if I would consider buying one of their vehicles.

FYI, they just served a letter to cafepress to have anything "m****ng" related removed. My own little shop with apparel for my registry was hit. I am now considering just closing up the registry, since I don't have much time for it now anyway, with my day job and having started my own business AND I don't particularly care for a lawsuit from you-know-who. I have come up with a creative (I think) apparel answer to this, and will probably be wearing it to next year's WDC on the Alley. If anyone would like a link to the shop I'm creating for it, IM me. I don't want to "advertise" here, but I think some of you might at least enjoy the humor of it.
 
#226
StangDreamin' said:
Unfortunately, that's the way of the market these days. You have to look beyond the brand name and whether it was made in "Meximericanada" (Thank you, Glenn Beck) of Chinese parts; look beyond that to the quality of the product.

I have always loved "my" Fords; but that Big Dog which may someday replace my F150 is right now a tossup between the Dodge/Cummins and the Silverado/Sierra HD with the Isuzu Marine based Duramax. The Powerstroke presently is not in the picture because Ford and Navistar are too busy flailing at one another to concentrate on delivering a quality product (IMHO). Besides; have you looked at an '07-'08 SuperDuty? They've become the front-runner in defining the term "FUGLY!" (a title previously held by the '04-'06 Chebbie Truck).

With Toyotas and Nissans being built in Texas, Tennesee and (one of the Carolina's) of partially Japanese/partially U.S./partially European parts, and me looking at a Sanden A/C compressor to replace the broken "lawnmower engine" York/Tecumseh unit in the Coog (not to mention my wife's product of the Daimler/Chrysler machine); I can't realistically scream "Buy American" anymore. Now, the "Country of Origin" doesn't matter as much as the finished product; because that's what my paycheck buys, and what my paycheck pays to maintain.

This has absolutely nothing to do with my own employer's "outsourced" Tech Support group. When a Broadband customer (who has no clue how "what he just bought" works), needs help; it would be good to have him talking to somebody for whom English is not a second language! When I get the pleasure of speaking to "Duayne in Boise" and I just know I'm hearing a camel barking in the background; even I lose confidence :rolleyes:
Click to expand...



ahh yes the "NEW" AT&T....gotta love it.
 
#227
bnickel said:
ahh yes the "NEW" AT&T....gotta love it.
Click to expand...

Gonna drift :OT: to answer this:

We're not "AT&T" -yet! But it may well be coming. The first CEO we had when they painted a big blue Q on my shirt was a former CEO of AT&T. Since he's been thrown out (and it now coming up with creative excuses to the 4th Circuit Court as to why he shouldn't go to jail); we had a CEO that was most known for cleaning up Ameritech to be sold to SBC. That guy was replaced by a guy known for selling PacBell to SBC. Anybody besides me see where this is going?

Now SBC also bought AT&T; and is now using that as their trade name (which I'm sure bnickel knows, considering where he lives). Over in California, I've seen the formerly PacBell trucks with their SBC stickers taken off and now carrying AT&T stickers. With the CEO shuffle my company has gone through; I wonder how long it will be efore my truck gets it's 3rd set of stickers? :p
 
#229
StangDreamin' said:
Gonna drift :OT: to answer this:

We're not "AT&T" -yet! But it may well be coming. The first CEO we had when they painted a big blue Q on my shirt was a former CEO of AT&T. Since he's been thrown out (and it now coming up with creative excuses to the 4th Circuit Court as to why he shouldn't go to jail); we had a CEO that was most known for cleaning up Ameritech to be sold to SBC. That guy was replaced by a guy known for selling PacBell to SBC. Anybody besides me see where this is going?

Now SBC also bought AT&T; and is now using that as their trade name (which I'm sure bnickel knows, considering where he lives). Over in California, I've seen the formerly PacBell trucks with their SBC stickers taken off and now carrying AT&T stickers. With the CEO shuffle my company has gone through; I wonder how long it will be efore my truck gets it's 3rd set of stickers? :p
Click to expand...


qualcom? for some reason i thought you were with AT&T.
 
#231
ARE YOU READY FOR THIS {MANURE}????

I'm ready to blow an aneurism over this one.....

Got this off the Sandhills M****ng Club (Fayetteville/Raeford,NC) webpage; where I visit pretty much daily since it went online abot the tme Tink moved to Ft Bragg. Tink and SVTCobra306 are both members; so, here comes "The Dad" trotting along behind..... :rolleyes:

If you guys think F**d went too far before; how about chasing after a little local club???? :notnice: :notnice: :notnice: :notnice: :notnice:

LINK


Personally; I'd like to be one of the "Sooper-Dooper Mega-Millions Powerball Lottery" winners; just so I could build up a Dynacorn '67 FB with a Dart block and Richmond tranny, then offer up pics of the completed project. When F**d's lawyers dropped a cease-and desist letter on me; I'd direct my Beverly Hills Daimler/Chrysler-driving fat cat lawyers to send F**d's lawyers preliminary settlement papers for my pending lawsuit for 5 digits in actual and 6 or 7 digits in punitive damages for impinging on my legal right to display my bought-and-paid-for property! There would also be 72 hour response deadline; after which I believe copies of said preliminary settlement offer would be distributed to each and every musclecar rag and cable show that I could find on Google!

They freakin' sell cars to enthusiasts and then threaten to sue said enthusiasts for showing them off!!! :mad:

Yesyesyes; I know..... the club was going to profit from the sale of calendars showing off members' cars. The membership bought the cars, the membership spent major bucks upgrading and improving the cars; but the membership can't gain anything from the money they spent on the cars????

The stupid Alpha Hotels at F**d refuse to consider that this group just out-of-the-blue gave F**d untold dollars'worth of FREE ADVERTISING!!! What a bunch of Foxtrotting jerks!

The vehicles' name is M****g; but the corporate legal shenanigans are HORSE S**T

Phew! Glad to get that off my chest! I need to take a few slow deep breaths.
And maybe half a bottle of Jack Daniels'.
The folks at Brown-Foreman don't mind if their major product's name is mentioned in a Public Forum - as long as it's spelled properly and not used in a derogatory manner :nice:
The corporate cretins at the U.S.' 3rd-largest auto manufacturer (Oops, my bad - Toyota took that slot from them and they're now #4 for some strange reason) maybe should get a clue from B-F!
 
#232
Saw some TV commercial last night...was for the latest miracle-cure drug that just might cause your kids to grow webbed feet...don't remember the product was barely paying attention...only reason I even noticed was there was this nice early model Stang (ooops, can I write that word?) on it...found it sad that the pharmaceutical company was (probably) forced to remove the running pony from the corral in order to show the smiling patient driving into the driveway though...real Foxtrot-Uniform-Charlie-Kilo'ed up eh?

I'm wondering how Stangnet has survived.
 
#234
A Little Update

Wow! Re-reading my previous post, I was amazed at how much the this whole topic (still) incenses me. For those of you think my typing is horrible (and I agree that it is); please understand that the typos still present in my previous post amounted to about 2% of all the typos I originally made in that post - I blasted through the original draft in about 2 minutes; and was still so "irritated" that i just didn't catch them all while "proofing" it :rolleyes: :shrug:

This afternoon, I spent quite a bit of time (1 hour + ) wading through the burgeoning thread (even Andy's and Heather's relationship didn't garner 758 posts in 6 days!) on the Black M****ng Club webpage; it appears as though F**D was actually after cafepress -which I'm sure electricgreen could better describe than I.
Regardless; Ford's responses have been pretty dogged in their assertions that they own all rights to "the specific likeness of their product" meaning the shape and features of the vehicle that they sold to an original owner. Now IMNSHO, if they own the "likeness" of my pickup, they pretty much own the pickup; and therefore I believe they should pay for it! Else we could enter into discussions determining whether "Theft" or "Embezzlement" would be the appropriate legal charge for coercing me to pay $21,105 (cash and trade equity down and the remaining amount subsequently financed) for a three-year-old truck that apparently I do not own! While I'm at it, maybe F**D would like to reimburse me for the cost of maintaining, licensing and insuring their F150 for the last two years, as well. Just a thought......

Anywayzzzzzzzz; it was requested by the Founder of BMC that those of us who linked to the original thread please come back and give a little update indicating that the original thread is now closed and include THIS LINK to the new thread; which could be appropriately sub-titled "Where We're Going From Here".

Also there are a couple of Ford emaill addresses in "The Original Big Thread" that might be useful to anybody who would like to Weigh In on that or any other matter discussed in the thread you're now reading.
 
#236
Ain't it great????

For some reason, this issue just "calls me" like not very many issues do. Since I've a Brown Cougar, I don't qualify for membership in the BMC on two counts. But still the assininity (yes, that's a word) of this whole thing just blows me away.
This club is posting pictures on the Mustangs of members that have been chosen as "Outstanding" and worthy of credit. The people honored have (among other things) "personalized" their rides into show-winners; these freakin' cars are GREAT! And Ford can't figure out that they're blocking the effort of, photography, production, and distribution of some outstanding pictorial advertisement of their product! Jeeeee-zusss H Keee-rist! If I were William Clay Ford II; I'd be all over that like white on rice! "Hi! This is Bill Ford, I'd like to buy 10,000 copies of your calendar to hang in every Ford Dealership showroom in the United States".

Instead, they're pushing this whole "You own the car, but we own any pictures you ever took or plan to take of the car from us"

What a bunch of dopes!

EDIT: If I were the new CEO of Chrysler Motors, LLC; I'd be working out the press release offering "sponsorships" to every Viper, Magnum, Challenger and SRT4 Club out there, to help with the production costs of the clubs' own calendars.......
 
#237
This situation really bothers me. What can we do to get Ford to realize their actions are unnecessarily putting them at risk. They are already losing face and customers over it. It kinda seems as if the cafe press thing is generating a lot of buzz.

How is stangnet getting away with blatant copyright infringement?
 
#238
You are thinking about using logic and reason to get through to a bunch of corporate lawyers...not gonna happen.

Our only hope is to get through to some shareholders, but most of them don't give a flip about cars in any way...just another toaster-oven/appliance to them. Besides...the board of directors must be convinced that they are losing more money from not getting a royalty on a club calendar than they are from chasing away long time customers who'll be buying from another car company next time they purchase.

On a side note...I have noticed that the vendors have not changed their names yet, at least on their ads and websites. Maybe Ford has backed off from attacking them and gone after car owners who take pictures.
 
#240
Did I hear my name? lol. I was going to post on BMC, but it's sllllooowwww from all the hits they're getting.

Well, it's been a few months since my run in with F*rd. I took a deep breath and stepped back. It still p's me off. BUT, I see the legal ground they are standing on. While I have a grasp of the legal part, I still think this is a gigantic slap in the face to enthusiasts. They (F*rd) don't offer me a shirt with a big body on it. I'm not taking anything away from them by wanting one with "my" year car on it.

I still say the new Challanger looks DA-UMN good to me as a possible new toy, and the Subaru Outback GT as a DD (yeah, I wish it was more truck than a station wagon, but the Legacy GT is one hella all around vehicle, and we need more room than a sedan gives). Were it not for this, I might have considered something from FOMOCO. I know, I know, I shouldn't stop supporting them because they are legally protecting their rights. Heck, sports fans drop their team for a bad season, I have every right to drop them on their ample rears for treating enthusiasts with as little respect as they have. Why should I stay loyal? What are they doing for me? I would feel bad for the low folks on the totum pole of F*rd went under, but the upper folks can go you know where and I wouldn't care. They drove the company to it's sorry state-reap what you sow. Besides, they never built the 49 or Bronco, so they don't have much of anything I want anyway!

I am going to be closing the EGMR soon. I'm not helping polish the blue oval for them if they are going to fight me promoting my site (my merchandise was also removed from Cafepress). I don't have the $$ that the BMC has to have lawyers fight the fight for me-I'd rather just close it up before I get some letter demanding compensation for using M-stng in my site url and name. This in no way tarnishes my love for my Mustangs. I will take heart in the fact that I bought them both used so "they" didn't make a penny from me :)

Hey, someone from F*rd just posted on the consumerist blog. Interesting.
 
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