There is case law from the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit which held that the presence of a trademark in a web page's URL post-domain path does not violate federal trademark law. I don't think Rob will have issues.
Actually just got off the phone with Mark and it was a positive call. He still isn't thrilled I included him in my email 2 weeks ago to Gus and I'm not thrilled he emailed Ferrari, but otherwise we agreed to put this behind us. I want to leave the thread open as a good discussion, but Mark and I have agreed to clean up some of the personal stuff.
E-mailing Ferrari themselves, as in to have them try to pursue legal action against FChat? That's low....
Good to hear. I initially thought - first magazines now this? How can Ferrari possibly expect to have a monopolly on everything relating to the brand, including enthusiast gatherings?
Let me get this straight some wacko from ferrari is trying to shut down fchat for life and yet the news is posted in the lamborghini section?. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Goto http://www.nissan.com if you'd like to be bored senseless by trademark dilution/infringement/cybersquatting issues...
Smart move, regardless of heavy-handed legal intimidation tactics. It took me TWO QX56s to realize that the product was sub-standard. What's that GW saying "Fool me once, shame on me ... fool me twice, well you'd better not do it again" ... or something
i think it goes.... " fool me once shame on you, fool me twice...... the fool me cant get fooled again"
That sucks. I don't get why they would do that. If anything, Forza attracts people to the market. Its one of my favorite magazines besides Cavallino
This is a long shot, but maybe they are trying to push Ferrari World and the Ferrari Owners' website(s). I don't particularly care for the owners' website as the 'forum' section does not give the interplay that we've become used to on F Chat. If anything I would have thought that F Chat would help not brand in the long run, not hurt it.
I'm thinking that an even better outcome would be if Ferrari S.p.A. would buy the website from Rob (for millions of $$$) and then hire Rob to manage it for them (for a decent annual salary).
Estopple. Ferrari has know about Ferrari Chat for years. They have asked Rob to point out that S.p.A. is not connected with Ferrari Chat which he did. If Ferrari S.p.A. felt they had the legal right to stop Rob's use of the name "Ferrari Chat" they had a duty to act on that belief upon becoming aware of Ferrari Chat. They didn't and the time for them to speak has long since passed. " the law refuses to allow a person to deny facts when another person has relied on and acted in accordance with the facts on the basis of the first person's behavior." It is fact that Ferrari Chat has been used by Rob for years. It is fact that Ferrari S.p.A. has been aware of this use for years. Ferrari S.p.A. upon becoming aware of Rob's Use of Ferrari Chat did not commence an action that would attempt to end that use. The fact that some banned users would some how attempt to get Ferrari S.p.A. to go after Rob is extremely pathetic. Next.
And if the day ever does come when they try to shut us down, I say we just change it to fchat.com . If I were Rob I would pursue the rights to own that domain, or just buy up fchat.org for $10.... I agree that it is super Lame-O to try and stir it up with Ferrari to make trouble for Rob. BT