[Greengoose]

I just received a phone call from Suzuki. My current BurgmanUSA logo can NOT be used to represent the website or club, etc... The "font" is copyrighted and so is the name Burgman. They didnt say if "burgmanusa" was acceptable if the font was changed to a unique style. Hmmm..Bummer!
-Bryan

 

[Jim]

That bites, what do they recommend?

 

[Greengoose]

I called them back. Basically if I don’t commercialize the site I can do anything I want. If I sell anything, to include t-shirts or mugs, it can not contain any copyrighted material. The BurgmanUSA name CAN be used by itself as long as the font is changed. No Suzuki Emblems or pictures from their website. I was also recommended to remove the Suzuki pictures on the home page if I choose to sell ANYTHING.

 

[Greengoose]

I guess I/we are back to designing a new logo for the site. I am glad that the BurgmanUSA name can be used.

 

[Pinwheel]

how about using someone's photo from here for the bikes? Who ever still has a stock one to match the one from the suzuki site.

as for as a font. there are so many out there. i bet you find one even better. I have faith in you!!!!

 

[NormanB]

I just received a phone call from Suzuki. My current BurgmanUSA logo can NOT be used to represent the website or club, etc... The "font" is copyrighted and so is the name Burgman. They didnt say if "burgmanusa" was acceptable if the font was changed to a unique style. Hmmm..Bummer!
-Bryan

Never mind that - what did they think of the site? :wink:

 

[Stormsteed]

Never mind.

 

[Randy]

You were really expecting a smooth ride all the way :!:
Just one more thing to make life interesting :roll:

But considering where you started and where you are now I think you can handle this challenge .

 

[pauljo]

This makes me wonder about that one T-shirt site... I'm pretty sure it uses the Burgman 650 font. I wonder how they get away with that... :?:

They probably did not ask permission. (And for the limited volume of money they make, I doubt if Suzuki will pursue it with them.)

 

[pauljo]

I think one thing we are seeing here is Suzuki's dislike for the Internet in general. The manufacturer's don't like the internet forums, because when there is a flaw with one of their models, the information spreads quickly. They use the term "Internet Hysteria" to categorize customer complaints on those issues.

It is unfortunate that they are that short-sighted. We are in an information age - and the Internet isn't going away any time soon. They need to learn to work with it, rather than resist it. As far as pilfering of intellectual materials goes, I firmly believe that they are guilty of that. I believe that they do incorporate product enhancement suggestions that they get from the Internet forums. But they read the forums anonymously, and do not credit the source.

Bryan did the right thing. Unfortunately, Suzuki holds all the cards in the deck and will always play them to their advantage.

 

[burg650]

I am sure if you use a photo of a burgman that is not stock anymore then they can't say you are using a copyright photo because it does not look the same as the stock one from there web site. As for fonts there are thousand up on thousand to pick from, I am sure you can find a better one that what they use. As for selling does that mean the classified section has to be removed.

I had the same problem with Pioneer last year with a few auction I had at the time, I used stock photo of the things I was selling (as most everyone did) and Pioneer told eBay to remove them because it was copyright material and eBay send me a letter telling me if I use copyright photo my account would be removed, so what I did was to take the same photo and use windows paint to change the back ground color and put a small digital camera logo on the photo and that changed the whole thing.

 

[vfdcaptain]

No Suzuki Emblems or pictures from their website. I was also recommended to remove the Suzuki pictures on the home page if I choose to sell ANYTHING.

I am sure if you use a photo of a burgman that is not stock anymore then they can't say you are using a copyright photo because it does not look the same as the stock one from there web site.

how about using someone's photo from here for the bikes? Who ever still has a stock one to match the one from the suzuki site.

Oooh, do I hear "photo contest"? 8)

 

[Greengoose]

When I get a few seconds to myself I will try to come up with another logo. Something attractive but not too complicated. Feel free to add more comments and ideas to this thread. ( It was kinda funny they called right after the t-shirt post.)

 

[pauljo]

I guess that it is safe to say that they have looked at the site now. :twisted:

 

[Greengoose]

Yes they did. They (legal) made no comments as to if they liked it or not. They only answered my questions about the legality of my requests.
I was unable to speak directly to legal. They used a senior customer rep. He said that he gets calls from consumers weekly saying they read "blah, blah," at BurgmanUSA. He said he felt honored to speak to the owner of the site. He said he had gone to the site even before he was assigned to speak with me. He said he like it alot.

 

[pauljo]

Excellent!

 

[alburg]

Good idea Reg, maybe we should have a photo contest just for the fun of it, daylight pictures only, hey? I don’t know what happened last night but there was white stuff on the ground this morning up here on the hill. I could have done a Burger in the snow shot. The snow was gone in about one hour. The dogs wanted to chase the deer in the backyard, their traction was not that good in the snow and the deer was gone like a bullet.

Cheers

 

[ChrisLucey]

Bryan, may I offer a bit of advice? Make SURE you get thru to the Legal department at some point and show them your re-designs. The customer service rep. ain't a lawyer, and I wouldn't bank everything on what he/she had to say. And, once you reach Legal, get 'em to put their determination in writing!

Some backstory: I used to work for a law firm that did patent and trademark work. One of our clients was a family-owned restaurant that called itself The Lexus Diner (named for a family member). Toyota found out about the existance of the place and hounded the bejesus out of the poor owners, arguing that the restaurant "diluted the value" of the Lexus automobile's trademark. The family paid my law firm gosh knows how much money, trying for years to make Toyota see reason. Who would honestly confuse Japanese luxury automobiles with a Greek diner in upstate New York? :roll:

Final score: International mega-corporation - 1, little guy and common sense - 0. The owners gave up and renamed their establishment. :evil:

I'd hate to see anything like that happen to you, after all you've done to put BurgmanUSA.com on the map!

--Chris

 

[Bleeder]

Whoever you spoke to from Suzuki from whatever department was correct. If you were using their logo or close-to-exact model name and font that is, strictly speaking, trademark infringement. No question about that. Also, if you are selling anything whatsoever, however small, that would constitute trademark dilution. If the use of the mark is non-commercial, no dilution. Usually.

You of course did the morally corect thing in asking permission to use their mark, but there is no way in hell they could ever grant you that right. Think about it. In fact, once the mark holder becomes aware of potential infringement or dilution, he is obligated to act against that infringement or dilution, or he risks losing the rights to the mark altogether.

Having said that, there are web sites like this all over the internet that use exact logos and sell mugs and tee-shirts and whatnot and the mark holders don't do a **** thing about it. You mentioned the guy from Suzuki had visited here before. I assume he saw the logo, yet was he going to be intiating any enforcement? I doubt it. In a sense your request may have forced their hand to ensure compliance here, but, again, you did the right thing.

FWIW.



Peace.

 

[Helix]

Bryan,
Sorry to hear about the logo issue. I know you probably went to a lot of work designing it. I'm sure with a lot of imput from members you will come up with a reasonable solution. Next thing you know Honda will want me to change my user name?

Helix
:roll: