Here is an idea.
Everyone that thinks this lawsuit over the Mustang Name is B.S. place a
piece of electrical tape over your grill pony from corner to corner like the no smoking sign.
Post the protest everywhere you can.
Perhaps Ford will notice.
Spead the word.
The Mustang symbol with a slash through it; kind of sounds like a window sticker one might expect to find on a beat-up Camaro - right next to the one of Calvin peeing on the blue oval. I mean, I understand the frustration with Ford over this issue, but...
I wonder what would happen if the company some of these people worked for lost their copyright protection and therefore their product identification. They would have customers buying elsewhere and than would have to shut down the plant and company. Than maybe they would see the value of copyright protection. We also may not have the full story.
Well, I see it both ways. I dont think Ford has a leg to stand on with the magazines catering to the mustang. NO ONE thinks they are from Ford. They are obviously free advertising for the stang, and on top of that Ford has known about these magazines for years. I bet any court will side with the magazine.
On the other hand "Mustang Parts" (or something similar) could be misunderstood as being "mustang parts from Ford." And that is exactly what I suspect Ford is trying to protect.
Go to court?
Doubtfull.
The lawfirm doing this is a known bully.
If you cant win outspend them into giving up.
Lawyers are dirt and we know it.
Face facts.
Courts are run by lawyers, judged by lawyers, and the days of defending yourself are history. Its like the scum in your fishtank; it just spreads and chokes out the tank.
Welcome to the legal system in America.
It does not matter if you are innocent or guilty.
It is who has the better lawyer.
Lawyers are nothing more than leeches on society.
Are there good lawyers out there?
You bet but at a cost.
They contribute nothing to society, and reap the benefits win or lose the case.
As my lawyer told me.
What do you call a bus full of lawyers driving off a cliff with an empty seat?
A missed opertunity, and a future lawsuit.
"IXTLAN" - who you going to call if you or someone you knew needed legal help "Mr. Goodwrench"? Both seem to be necessary evils.
I do have an attorney and pay out the arse for it.
Yes it is a neccesary evil and it sucks bad.
In fact my family had a crap christmas after crap christmas because of what I had to pay a lawyer. We have gone without for 5 years due to a lawyer that just wont give up trying to take me to court.
I am in the state Supreme Court now over this crap and all I did was adopt a child.
If you want my opinion of the low life trash then we would need to go off public for me to express it. I have seen every trick there is and know exactly what a lawyer is and how they work.
I also know that the ONLY thing they are interested in is filling there pockets.
Dont talk to me about what they are and what they are like.
Or what they will do, and low they will go.
I do have an attorney and pay out the arse for it.
Yes it is a neccesary evil and it sucks bad.
In fact my family had a crap christmas after crap christmas because of what I had to pay a lawyer. We have gone without for 5 years due to a lawyer that just wont give up trying to take me to court.
I am in the state Supreme Court now over this crap and all I did was adopt a child.
If you want my opinion of the low life trash then we would need to go off public for me to express it. I have seen every trick there is and know exactly what a lawyer is and how they work.
I also know that the ONLY thing they are interested in is filling there pockets.
Dont talk to me about what they are and what they are like.
Or what they will do, and low they will go.
I'm sorry to hear about your ordeal. I agree that our legal system has become too complicated - as the result of too much government and too many laws. Think of this, though:
There are Mustang drivers with bad attitudes. They will cut you off in traffic and drive like maniacs, as if they have absolutely no concern for the safety or well-being of others. Some even brag about this behavior - for proof of that, all you need do is read some (not all, but some) of the posts in the 'kill stories' section of AFM. These Mustang drivers can give us all bad names, but that doesn't mean we're all thoughtless jerks who have no concern for others. Same goes for lawyers. I have known some lawyers who are complete jerks - lowlife leeches, just as you say. However, I have known others who were good people and who would just about give you the shirt off their backs. You mentioned adoption - one lawyer I knew not only had custody of his three children, he adopted his ex-wife's son from a former marriage and got custody of him, too, because she wasn't a very good parent and didn't really want him. This lawyer wanted the kid to have a chance. The kid was kind of a troubled kid, but this guy took on the challenge, anyway, and eventually helped him straighten out. This same lawyer is not your typical 'rich' lawyer, either - he feels sorry for too many of his clients and ends up working pro bono or at a reduced fee.
Another example: Growing up, my best friend's father was a defense attorney. From the first time I met him, he treated me with great kindness and the kind of respect that a grownup rarely shows a kid. No one outside my immediate family was ever any better to me than he was. To risk a cliche, he was a man of strong moral character and genuinely one of the nicest people I have ever met.
You know I have had nothing but bad experience when dealing with lawyers and I hold a grudge agianst them.
So perhaps my view would be what you call severly "Jaded".
My lawyer is a good guy and works for a reduced rate because he also knows what has happened is wrong. But just the same I pay and I pay because I am fighting a bad lawyer with no scrooples what so ever. What I have read about the lawfirm doing this on Fords behalf they are the bully no contious type firm. No pitty from me is what they get. As for Ford I think the managers who are going after the suit should be fired and rode out on a rail. To me Ford was the Family oriented company that always stood above the rest. GM has virtually turned Japanese as is shown through the designs they pump out and totally forgot about it being the American car company and staying true to the American view of a car. Ford is also turning that way. Look at the new Focus and I see Toyota, or the new 500 and look at Lexus. Not American looks anymore. The Ford Truck looks like a Dodge. SVT is Dead. Hardly a day goes by when I dont hear from someone this statement "I really like that new Mustang. There isnt anything else out there that doesnt look like Toyota or Honda built it." And now Ford wants to act like total-at all costs-bottom line-screw your neighbor for dollors game show contestants. The Mustang was the last bastion for the American Car and now they want to attack the base that supports that too. Chrysler under former Ford CEO Lee Iacocca seems to be the only company that isnt Japan oriented in its designs. But whats going on there is another story all together (I refer to them as Buffalo Car Designs). I guess what I so long windedly am trying to say is I see Ford turning into just another corporate clone and I dont like it.
Thats my view of it all and I am and will raise He**, because dammit I care about it and what is happening. If you want to put your head in the sand then do so. But dont expect me to do it.
I guess what I so long windedly am trying to say is I see Ford turning into just another corporate clone and I dont like it.
Thats my view of it all and I am and will raise He**, because dammit I care about it and what is happening. If you want to put your head in the sand then do so. But dont expect me to do it.
First, I realize that this has hit on sore points with you on more than one level. However, just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't mean they are putting their heads in the sand any more than you are putting your head in the sand for holding strongly to your opinions.
Secondly, remember how Ford tried to cover up findings that the Pinto could burst into flames when in a certain type of accident - even after people died in flaming wrecks? Remember the investigations into how they covered up the possible high rollover rate in the earlier Bronco IIs? How about the recent debacle with the Explorers and how they tried to put all the blame on Firestone (even though there were accidents with different tires)? All three of these are examples - the Pinto from about thirty years ago, so this is not a recent phenomenon - of how Ford Motor Company puts profits over the safety and well-being of their customers. In other words, they've long been 'just another corporate clone'. The 'family company' idea is nothing more than a marketing ploy. I often think that the Mustang is what it is and remains what it is in spite of Ford execs, rather than because of them (don't forget - several years ago they wanted to turn the Mustang into a FWD 'Japanese looking' car). The Ford Motor Company is in business to make money, period, and to not see this, someone would have to have their head buried deeply in the sand.
Ahh yes you made my point that started all this.
Public Opnion swayed Ford from the FWD JapStang.
Ended the Pinto, and the Exploder got a redesign.
I am not saying if you do or dont agree your putting your head in the sand. At least it wasnt what my intent was.
But if you do feel strongly and do nothing then Sand in your ears you have. So I am taking a Pro-Active stance and pushing buttons.
Will it do any good? We shall see.
My opinion is the lawsuit is crap.
It is acting like the corporate clone it has and is becoming.
But it can turn around this trend before it is too late.
This lawsuit nonsense that was ok for 20+ years is a good start.
As I mentioned in another thread pertaining to this topic, I could almost be convinced that 'turning off' Mustang fans is exactly what Ford is trying to do. I hate for this to sound like a big anti-Mustang conspiracy theory, but let's consider the facts:
1. The CEO and other execs at Ford were against building the Mustang in the first place. They thought the Mustang would never sell. Iaccoca, who was not CEO at the time but a lower exec, had to push and fight for it. Imagine how embarrassed the other execs must have been when it sold like hotcakes!
2. Ford has tried to kill the Mustang as we know it at least twice. Once with the Mustang II (although it can be argued that the II kept the name alive during some rough times) and again with what turned out to be the Ford Probe. As you mentioned, only public outcry (and some input from the unions) stopped this.
3. The 'retro' design of the new Mustangs turned out to be a stroke of sales genius and brought a lot of interest to the car. However, to me, this also suggests the possibility that Ford went backward for design cues because they had no idea how to move the Mustang forward. There has been talk of a 'redesign' in 2009, but the drawing that usually accompanies these rumors is actually an early conceptual drawing for the current gen. Mustang - not a concept for the next design.
4. It is likely that the Camaro and the Challenger will return shortly to provide sales competition for the Mustang. As re-released names of cars that also have a 'pony' history, they could well cut deeply into the market of which the Mustang is currently just about the only example. What better excuse other than 'low sales figures' does Ford need to discontinue the Mustang - or bastardize it into some kind of FWD Nissan clone based on one of the Mazdaspeed platforms?
5. What would stop them from doing such a thing? Outcry from hardcore Mustang fans - the kind of folks that buy aftermarket parts from independent dealers, read Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords and other such publications and belong to Mustang clubs. What's the best way to prevent this outcry? Don't prevent it, exactly, but use it. P!ss those very people off and drive them away before you make your move. Make it harder to get or find aftermarket parts, take away the publications that keep their interest alive, take their clubs to court. Kill the Mustang community and leave behind a bunch of people who could give a hairy rat's a$$ what Ford does because they are never buying a car from them again. This can be achieved even if Ford doesn't win a single lawsuit - just by the ill will that it would generate. Then they can build that FWD, independent rear suspension abomination and slap a running pony in the grill. Sure, they may have lost their old school fanbase, but now they have a car that will sell to the anonymous masses - and sell it will. Anything with the Mustang name on it will sell to a general public who won't realize that Ford has destroyed an American tradition - and won't care. Sooner or later, those of us who do care will fade into the woodwork and, to the masses, a FWD car is exactly what the Mustang will be. Give it a few model years and the general buying public (and magazines like Consumer Reports) will be talking about how great it is, how much more safe and refined, how much more fun to drive it is and how they can't believe that old RWD relic lasted as long as it did. Sure, they would lose the old time Mustang buyers, but let's face it, folks who really get in to their cars - who see them as something other than a status symbol or a way to get where they are going, folks who belong to Mustang clubs or online communities such as AFM - are but a small percentage of the car buying public. Ford has already shown its disdain for that type of buyer when they closed down SVT. They can afford to lose those sales because they will pick up more from the pool of the general buying public - buyers who want FWD and independent rear suspension and who don't care a bit about history or tradition. After that, the only people building RWD cars could be, ironically, the Japanese - for use in drifting.
I'm not saying that you should just lay down and do nothing. If you believe that signing the petition and protesting to Ford will help, by all means, do so. I hope you are right and things turn around. I suspect, however, that the biggest outcome of the protests and petitions will be to let Ford know that everything is going exactly according to their plan.
Of course, there is a second possibility to consider. That is the idea that the Mustang in its present form has become something of a goose that lays golden eggs for Ford. Before, when interest in the Mustang was there but nothing like it is now, it might have been easier for Ford to let other businesses handle selling aftermarket equipment. The availability of such equipment could increase Mustang sales without Ford having to bother with the logisitics of running much of an aftermarket (Ford Racing is there, sure, but compared with many other aftermarket dealers, their offerings are minimal - and these aftermarket dealers provided an outlet for Ford Racing products, too). Also, interest was high enough to sell some magazines, which kept interest in the Mustang going and gave Ford some free advertising and marketing without Ford having to go through the trouble of publishing anything.
Now, however, going back to the 'golden eggs' theory, these magazines and aftermarket dealers represent entities with whom Ford must share these golden eggs. Now that there is real profitibility in the Mustang, it is possible that Ford wants 100% of it. The plan could be to do away with all the independent suppliers and publications and then begin to provide such services in house. If this is the case, I truly hope that the protests and petitions put a stop to such a greedy plan.
Here is a comment from Mustangs Plus owner Brad Bramlett.
Pretty kewl guy.
From FordMuscle's web page:
This is Ron Bramlett, President of Mustangs Plus in Stockton, California. I have been reading the comments here at www.fordmuscle.com and would like to add a couple of thoughts. First of all, all of us at Mustangs Plus would like to say Thank You for getting involved. It’s so easy to read something like this and say, Gee, that’s too bad. But we’ve received letters and emails from so many people that it is immpossible to respond to all of them separtately which means that a lot of hobbiest are aware of what’s going on. We hope all of you know we appreciate your support and well wishes. Now, on to the problem at hand.
We hope that this trademark problem is just a lack of communacation between Ford Upper Management and the law firm they have hired. We have been unsuccessful in talking to anyone at Ford who has the horsepower, no pun intended, to resolve this issue with us. That is, unless we want to admit to Ford that we have damaged them by using Mustang in our business name for over 25 years and send them a cashiers check for $10,000 and sign a form admiting such which would give them the right to still sue us in the future. It’s not likely that we will ever agree to that!
We, in no way, feel that we have damaged Ford Motor Company by spending millions of dollars to promote the Mustang name. But we do feel that by allowing us to use the Mustang name for 25 years and then abruptly forcing us to stop using it, Ford has really damaged us. But it’s not just us at Mustangs Plus who are going to be hurt. Since the 1970’s, there are thousands of small Mustang, Bronco, Thunderbird, F-100, you name it, Ford shops owners all over the world who have spent years building their business. And now, at a time when many of them are getting older and starting to think of retiring and selling their business, Ford starts sending out these letters. It has an effect that is heartless.
As soon as a business gets one of these letters, the value of that business drops like a rock, again, no pun intended. Stop and think about it. You’re interested in buying The Mustang Parts Store that has been in business for years and years. You’ve seen their ads, heard people talk about the business by name, The Mustang Parts Store, and formed an opinion that you would like to own that business. You and the owner agree on a price for you to take over the business. But, the day the sale is to go through, the seller tells you that you can’t call it The Mustang Parts Store as it has been called and advertised for all these years. But, you can call it The Parts Store. Now, I ask you. Are you going to be willing to pay the same amount of money for it now, knowing that you can’t use Mustang in the name, as you agreed to pay for it with the Mustang in the name? Of corse not and this is the problem. This is what thousands of small business owners will face if Ford is really serious about enforcing this idea. With the value gone from their business, how will these small businesses secure loans to stay in business? How will they advertise to bring Mustang or other Ford trademarked models to their specific business without spending many times more in advertising to do so? If Ford pursues this action, it will have a very negative effect on a lot of Ford related speciality businesses. Honestly, I really don’t see Ford wanting to do that. In my opinion, it is absolutely one of the worst ideas in the history of the automobile. I almost believe square wheels would make more sense!
At Mustangs Plus, we have never tried to have anyone believe we are Ford Motor Company. Mustang in our name, as with thousands of other businesses, is purely a descriptive word. And Ford has been aware of our company for years. We’ve bought millions of dollars of Ford parts from Ford to sell to our customers. We offer a lot of Ford Authorized Products to our customers. Ford even advertises our name for us!
As far as we’re concerned, we’ve had a very good relationship that has benifited Ford as well as Mustangs Plus. Until now, Ford has never said we’ve damaged them. And, in all honestly, it’s not even Ford who is saying it. It’s a law firm that someone at Ford has hired.
As for our desire to be reasonable with Ford, Ford has never offered us the possibility of paying a fee to license us to use Mustang in our name. In fact, one of their people has declined to me personally the possibility of that happening. I’m hopefull that he is overruled by someone further up the Ford ladder. If anyone at Ford Motor Company is reading this and would like to talk to me about it, I would really like to hear from you.
Add to all this, Ford’s law firm has told at least one magazine editor and newspaper reporter that the magazines and clubs are next. Let’s assume it’s true. Why in the world would Ford let them say it? Wouldn’t Ford want to get one problem under control instead of creating two more? The magazines and clubs would assume that they would never be targets. But then Ford’s lawyers tell them otherwise? It just doesn’t make any sense. When you add all of these things up, it’s hard for me to beleive that Ford Upper Management knows a whole lot of what is really happening.
One other thing to consider. If people stop buying Ford products and supporting Ford magazines and clubs, in the long run it will hurt the very people who Ford is hurting now. As I stated above. I’m not sure that Ford Upper Management really knows what’s happening. So let’s hold off on condemning Ford Motor Company as a whole until someone high up at Ford comes out and gives us a reason to. If they do, then we’ll all know it’s not just a hired law firm overstepping their bounds.
Until then, keep those letters going to Ford and let’s let them hear the voices of the people who have kept their brands alive! Again, all of us at Mustangs Plus would like to say Thank You for all the support and well wishes we’ve received.
Protest Ford Mustang Lawsuit 
