I'm being sued by Ferrari

How much for a franchise, I also would like to suggest selling Smiley Meals for kids

 

I just noticed that this Thread is still going. I had no idea. Upon re-reading my original post, I was absolutely mortified. I was mixing copyright and trademark law, in a totally incompressible manner, in the same sentence. Never, never post when you (literally) doing multiple things at once and not thinking about the subject at-hand. Mea culpa.

In sum, …..

Trademark:
The site owner responded in good faith. Any potential Trademarks/Servicemarks which could be construed as being owned by Ferrari, Spa or FNA were removed. An omnibus disclaimer was also added at the bottom of each page. Finally, the owner of the site invited Ferrari's legal counsel to inspect the site immediately and at their discretion in the future – a very good idea.

Copyright:
All circuitry diagrams are unique and created by the owner of the site. An omnibus disclaimer was also added at the bottom of each page.

In the end one can not find fault with Ferrari wanting to protect their Intellectual Property, or what would be its worth? If I were in their situation I would do so in a zealous manner.

Yuliya, you are absolutely correct, I was using the Berne Convention in my (rather poor) analysis. With regard to the URAA restoring the copyright without notice, this is not an issue I have come-across, but is certainly a potential (problematic) issue . You are one superb attorney, and have my most sincere admiration and respect. With regard to my practice, I am In-House at a BioPharma and literally > 90% of my practice is patent prosecution, with a little infringement litigation, trade secrecy, licensing, copyright, trademark, and general corporate law, comprising the remaining. I’m also co-director of drug development, so I’m basically just a science geek that “plays” IP Attorney on occasion.

 

Nice melt down!

I didn't have to google anything. Scott was pretty clear in his post, I don't see what you weren't able to grasp in it... you can't copyright a schematic, just the expression of it. Which is why he mentioned that if the guy changed the expression, he's likely OK.

I've run my own business for over a decade, filed patents and copyrights and trademarks and gotten into legal disputes over same. It's something I know about... I don't claim to know about it just because I once saw a patent, the way some people "know about" stock options because they get them (LOL!). And I apologize if you felt I questioned your ability, I know the best law schools in the world are in Tblisi and only a top few are accepted.

Dunno about the Amazon thing, I manufacture medical devices for paraplegics and automotive electronics... is Amazon a good market for paraplegics? Can you tell me about their stock option plans?

 

+1 Class act. I vote if any of us want an opinion on IP we would pay for we turn to Scott.

 

Scott - not to worry, thank you for the kind words and clarification. I appreciate the convention input, pretty much everything I deal with is modern and it didn't occur to me immediately.

You may wish to read Scott's email immediately above yours. I am fascinated and mildly entertained by the fact you are somehow threatened enough by something about me to find it necessary to jump in just for the heck of it time and time again, not even to add something that hasn't yet been said, merits be damned. Often it's just to irritate, frequently it's wrong (as it is here, where lack of reading comprehension made you miss both that the question was about the US and the "truth as defense" statement referred to defamation, not generic defense for posting information publicly), but I guess anyone taking legal advice from a message board, regardless of origin, does it at his own risk.

In this case, you mixing concepts, but I'm sure you'll be able to "grasp" it this time. I pointed out to you where I said - well before any of your posts - that Paul may have modified the schematics sufficiently not to run into trouble. My question to Scott was on a different issue, wondering why he pointed out the absence of copyright markings on the original schematics, considering that normally their presence is irrelevant for the purposes of copyright enforcement - with a few narrow exceptions, the convention being one. You may wish to learn something from this exchange - namely, that it is possible to ask for a clarification when you think someone is wrong and be polite about it, you know, just in case you are wrong yourself..

I wouldn't know how good Tbilisi law schools are as I am originally from Russia, not Georgia (Tbilisi? seriously?), and my law degree is from a top-tier law school in the U.S. It's only fair you get my qualifications since you shared yours. I graduated in top 3% with a magna cum laude (meaning as a non-native English speaker and a single mom of a toddler at the time I did better than about 400 college-educated native English-speakers who did well enough on LSAT to get into law school), had job offers from every top firm in the city, went to work for the largest energy law firm in the world for seven years before getting hired away by a Fortune 500 client.

I deal with all international commercial and contract issues outside of the Americas, M&A, litigation, IP, some HR, employment and compensation (yes, that even included working on stock options and stock compensation plans, if you can believe it). My past practice also included structured and project finance, energy and power marketing, and a number of other practice areas, including pretty much every upstream and mistream issue you can think of; I've closed multi-billion dollar deals, some named deal of the year by "Energy Risk" and "International Financing Review" magazines. I've practiced law for about ten years, I love my job, I'm good at it, I'm proud of what I've achieved, and I always try to help when I can.

So I hope you can help me out here. I see three options going forward. Should I add you to ignore list or do you think you can restrain yourself and actually read my posts next time before trying to insult me? Should you consider adding me to your ignore list if you don't feel you can give me as much deference as you give my male colleagues here - why would you want to read my contributions if you think I don't know what I'm talking about anyway? Alternatively, next time you are through Houston, PM me, I'll buy you a vodka and maybe a mano-a-mano would be what the doctor ordered.

 

PM sent.

 

PM <about to be> sent back.

 

But what is a 'reasonable price' ? Remember, they have an F1 team to support..

1. a must.
2. maybe?
3. and you think that will stop pursuants from registering, paying for a membership and logging in how?

1) absolutely agree. Microsoft and Nike are notorious for this as well.

That can be circumvented possibly.
Give them away for free but charge $20 for shipping and handling.
There was a guy here that sold linear amps for CB's back in the 70's, the FCC busted him for selling the amps, but he was not selling the amps - he gave away the amps for free, but that 1' long patch cord that goes from the amp to the radio was $100.00.

It seems to me that if you have a product you are 'selling' that people NEED, folks know what they are looking for, you have it, etc. so is there truly a NEED to show official logos or photos, and trade-named words or phrases? I see websites all the time with NO graphics whatsoever, they are all over in the electronics areas and home appliance repair sites, all you need is a text line of what it is, what years and models, and cost.

 

I don't understand what the fuss is all about.

Ferrari SpA doesn't own the rights to the name Ferrari. This would be similar to Ford claiming the right to the name Brown in the USA.

However, Ferrari clearly owns the trademark of Ferrari with the long F. Ferrari also owns the right to the shields and Scuderia Ferrari and on and on.

But, Rob is in the clear with the name Ferrari Chat. So, back to the OP. So, Dude. Were you or were you not using Ferrari's trademarks?

If yes, shame on you.

If no, tell the lawyers to go screw themselves.

Dale