Sorry to hear VW is taking this tack on vintage. While I know other marques are very protective of their trademarks because the law requires them to be or lose control it seems that they need to either be in the market for vintage parts or not.
One of my other hobbies is motorcycles, mainly BMWs. I really like the way I can access realoem.com and find the parts breakdown for my motorcycle by VIN and then order it through any of the BMW motorcycle dealers on line or at the store. For the most part I've been able to order all the mechanical parts for my '78, '91 and '93 motorcycles right from BMW. Not cheap but I can keep my motorcycles running using OEM parts. In fact, Max BMW is building a 1975 R90S from the ground up using parts available from the catalog -> http://www.maxbmwmotorsport.com/max_bmw_r90s_build/ Nick vwradios.com On Wednesday, December 18, 2013 10:00:46 AM UTC-5, Bert Knupp wrote: > > Volks, > > An article in this week’s* Spiegel Online* ( > *http://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/vw-mahnt-ersatzteilhaendler-ab-im-streit-um-oldtimer-a-925529.html#spRedirectedFrom=www&referrrer=https://m.facebook.com*<http://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/vw-mahnt-ersatzteilhaendler-ab-im-streit-um-oldtimer-a-925529.html#spRedirectedFrom=www&referrrer=https://m.facebook.com> > ) tells how the VW Group, after having backed off of pursuing their > claimed “trademark infringements” for a while, is now again ramping up > their war on independent producers of accessories, parts, and especially > replacement parts for VW – regardless whether they carry VW trademarks. They > have secured court decisions that even the approximate shape of the VW > beetle, the Bulli, or anything else is a “three-dimensional trademark” and > they can prohibit its use. Even if you photograph your own car and put > it on a T-shirt, you might receive a letter, they say. > > Here we go again. The non-customer-friendly actions of a bunch of > corporate suits puts them into an adversarial stance against the very > people they want to retain as customers. Contrast that with, say Ford or > Chevrolet, who have always gone over backward to support collectors and > their fan base. Ah, well … . > > Bert Knupp in Music City USA > > __*n|*_ > > °(_____)º > > (ô\_*|*_/ô) > > U° °U > > Polizeikäfer 70 > > -- Visit the VintagVW archives at http://mail-archive.com/[email protected] --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VintagVW - Air Cooled Volkswagen Discussion List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintagvw. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
