subaru of america tries hostile takeover of subaruchallenge

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1611940

opie said:You may have noticed some changes to the SubaruChallenge.com website, recently Subaru of America's marketing department decided that they liked the SubaruChallenge idea so much they wanted it and also decided that we should just give them the name, the event format and the website content we have worked so hard on for the past 6 years. Because we have worked so hard over the past 6 years with individual Subaru dealerships and Subaru of America's own regional offices to host the best automotive customer appreciation events in the U.S. we did not feel obligated to just give away our hard work. In response, Subaru of America has made it clear that if we do not give them the items they are requesting, that we are no longer welcome to use their name/identity/etc.

read pass along.. provide heat to subaru.

They've known about this for a while, so any attempt at "copyright" "trademark" infringement seems to be a blatant grab at the series..

Sounds like something Ford did a couple years back for like the Black Mustang Owners club or some name like that. Said the the pictures used in the calender (taken by individuals who own the vehicles) were property of Ford and it was illegal for them to sell the Calenders without the rights to do so from Ford.

Gosh, when will the rich white guys representing Large companies ever win?

This sounds like one of those cases (if taken to court) you SHOULD win. Whether you WOULD win it, is something else.

What is so stupid here, is that SOA thinks this "concept" of yours is JUST well enough known that if they do a "hostile takeover" it won't get any publicity....good or bad. Yet, they obviously feel it's well enough known and worthwhile so that they want it.

From previous experience, your 6+ years head start MAY not be worth anything to the legal system....sorry to say.

If worse comes to worse, SOA will do what others in this situation have done: they will set up a nearly identical "entity" figuring you can't/won't be able to sue them....then they will siphon off your "customers/fans" like those "shadow" websites.

they'll definetly win cause "subaru" is trademarked I believe..

But it seems that these dudes went about business the wrong way..

the guy who runs the subaru challenge (opie) on nasioc is so disgusted he has put his subarus and any thing subaru related up for sale. including die cast cars etc.. He's really not having a good time and all he wanted to do was race.

EricM wrote: Gosh, when will the rich white guys representing Large companies ever win?

I must have missed the part where this is automatically whitey's fault. Isn't interjecting race here a bit unnecessary?

I've been to a few of the past challenges. This year they weren't able to organize one for the North East. As far as I recall the previous years saw registration filled up long before the event, so it had nothing to do with response??? And I just saw that the Great Lakes one for this weekend was canceled due to low registration numbers...

Maybe SOA will do a better job of organizing them?? From my perspective, it can't get any worse...

Trickle down economics rocks!!!!