AskaVWSalesGuy Site Shutdown

[darrelld]

Today we received a letter from a law firm telling us that we must close down the website or face legal actions for using the VW names and trademarks. So in effort to comply and not get sued we will be closing down effective 8:0 PM EST on Feb 5th 2013.
We will also close down the Youtube page, twitter and FB pages.

http://askavwsalesguy.com/


Not sure what prompted VW to do this but I found a good deal of useful information on that site.


Any opinions on this?

 

[Lightflyer1]

Not unusual for any business to do this. Prothe was reported to their legal department for this same thing. He just came up with more names though.

 

[tscottt]

Agree, not surprising. Hopefully the information will carry over and continue to be posted.

 

[BKmetz]

He was on TDIClub for a while, pretending to help people but mostly to promote his web site. I asked him nicely to register as a vendor, several times. He ignored the requests and kept sneaking in links in his posts. So his account was disabled.

 

[Lug_Nut]

So how does "askadubsalesguy . com" strike you?
Just tell the layers that "dub" is a musical offshoot of "ska".

 

[compu_85]

Odd vw would shut down someone selling VWs


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[thebigarniedog]

Today we received a letter from a law firm telling us that we must close down the website or face legal actions for using the VW names and trademarks. So in effort to comply and not get sued we will be closing down effective 8:0 PM EST on Feb 5th 2013.
We will also close down the Youtube page, twitter and FB pages.

http://askavwsalesguy.com/


Not sure what prompted VW to do this but I found a good deal of useful information on that site.


Any opinions on this?

The fail is strong with VW.

 

[jasonTDI]

Got nothing nice to say about them...VW.

Wonder when they will get FrankO6. He uses TDI in his business name. Quite a trademark violation.

 

[snakeye]

He should rename his name to ask a wolks vagen sales guy.

 

[CmdrData]

Doesn't this guy promote VW cars & techno that comes with these cars on his site? Not a fan of his but do find some of his vids are informational since I have not shop for a new dub for years. Stupid of VW to shut down a site that promote their products.

 

[bangoman]

Well the URL redirects to Jay's car blog so the info is still there. I thought VW would be OK for this sort of thing. His videos are always very positive for the brand and he takes the opportunity to show off "just in" cars for sale. I would've thought this would be the future of reaching out to prospective buyers.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

VW has to protect their trademarks or risk losing them.

 

[FlyTDI Guy]

It's some persons job to sit there all day ferreting this stuff out on the internet and other media sources. I'm sure this was an opportunity to apply another notch in the gun and further justify his/her existence, job and salary. All this, irrespective of whether there is any actual threat involved. Seems to me VW would be smarter to create alliences with those that benefit their interests and, even further, exploit the notions in their own marketing schemes.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Whether you think it's logical or not, Trademark law in the US requires that the owner defend its trademark by "asking" others that publish it to stop. If they don't do that something akin to eminent domain can take place where a company can say that since VW didn't ask them to stop they can continue to use the trademark and, eventually, VW could lose trademark rights. So they really have to defend the trademark or lose it. They have a law firm on retainer for this.

I'm not defending their actions, just explaining. It really has nothing to do with what may or may not be good business practice.

 

[waltzconmigo]

ibw--- what you are referring to is the concept of "adverse possession", only "correcting" you so that if someone is unfamiliar with eminent domain they do not look it up and think that somehow the gov't is involved in taking anything away from them.

ciao,
waltz

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I was just using that as a comparative example.

 

[FlyTDI Guy]

Don't get me wrong... I understand the need for this and don't disagree. There are many companies out there (Microsoft, Disney) that vehemently pursue any trademark infractions. VW is another one. IMO, it's a matter of degree which is a slippery slope. I guess a core part of me responds to reports like this the same as I would when hearing a 7 year old was expelled from school for making a 'gun' noise.

 

[Got Bearings?]

Your question:

Not sure what prompted VW to do this but I found a good deal of useful information on that site.

Your answer:

Today we received a letter from a law firm telling us that we must close down the website or face legal actions for using the VW names and trademarks.

I never saw your site or your content but the name "Ask a VW Sales Guy" can imply that you're a VW representative, speaking on behalf of VW. Since you aren't an employee of VW (my assumption), they can't control you or your content that could potentially be damaging to the VW trademark. Now, if your name was "Ask a car saleman", I don't think anyone can touch it.

 

[darrelld]

Your question:


Your answer:


I never saw your site or your content but the name "Ask a VW Sales Guy" can imply that you're a VW representative, speaking on behalf of VW. Since you aren't an employee of VW (my assumption), they can't control you or your content that could potentially be damaging to the VW trademark. Now, if your name was "Ask a car saleman", I don't think anyone can touch it.

The same could be implied with VW Vortex.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

The same could be implied with VW Vortex.

Nope. VWVortex is considered an enthusiast or fan site (they have another name for it but I forget what it is right now) and VW allows these to operate since they're not selling a product. Miata.net is another example. Clearly the vortex generates revenue, but they obviously have reached an agreement with VW.

 

[compu_85]

Peter,

I remember reading about many enthusiast sites VW shut down in the 90s simply because they had the name VW in them. Were they trying to sell things too?

-J

 

[darrelld]

Nope. VWVortex is considered an enthusiast or fan site (they have another name for it but I forget what it is right now) and VW allows these to operate since they're not selling a product. Miata.net is another example. Clearly the vortex generates revenue, but they obviously have reached an agreement with VW.

The only thing they sold on askavwsalesguy was VW's?

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I think VW softened their position on selected sites. Clearly Vortex has a relationship with VWoA, just look at the news items they post. I never saw the askavwsalesguy site but perhaps they didn't see it as a positive, or that base is already covered. They also allow PassatWorld to exist, btw.

 

[darrelld]

I think VW softened their position on selected sites. Clearly Vortex has a relationship with VWoA, just look at the news items they post. I never saw the askavwsalesguy site but perhaps they didn't see it as a positive, or that base is already covered. They also allow PassatWorld to exist, btw.

I know he did mention VW asked him to join their domain, apparently when he did not comply they followed up with legal.

 

[thebigarniedog]

Nope. VWVortex is considered an enthusiast or fan site (they have another name for it but I forget what it is right now) .......

A vast wasteland of broken fail

 

[Bob_Fout]

A vast wasteland of broken fail

What is your stance on that?

 

[vwdieseling]

I know if they can steer you to a dealership, they have succeded in something in their favor. I had business law in college, but always thought that a disclaimer would suffice. It is kind of scary, if you look at it. The reason being that the exchange of technical info could be restricted in web form. In my opinion it would only be advantages for VW to allow such sites to maintane their exsitance. The happier owners are such as myself the better the VW sales.

 

[bhtooefr]

Yes, VW is required to defend their trademark.

No, VW isn't required to be dicks about it. They can ask the site to post a disclaimer saying that they're not affiliated with VW or representing VW, and they can also ask the site to license the trademark for as little as $1.

Oh, and TDI is a VW trademark, too.

 

[MonsterTDI09]

I guess it was ok when he was employed by VW and have control over the content on the web site.

 

[Lug_Nut]

Oh, and TDI is a VW trademark, too.

Therapy Dogs International?


TDI relative to automobiles is within the VW trademark rights. TDI relative to canine is not.
VW relative to the alphabet is not, Golf relative to the funny-pants walking sport is not, Scirocco relative to meterology isn't.

If the 'vwsalesguy' is in the business of buying and selling V and W letter tiles for a Scrabble game then Volkswagen wouldn't care, Parker Brothers would.