Trademark infringement notice...

[splitfan]

There is a trend of VW doing this world wide, in the US companies are forced to change names / logos or face legal action. You will no longer find a site showing a VW logo not even when advertising a hub cap, and if they sell anything with a VW logo ie. hub caps, royalties need to be paid, as an example a hub cap now costs 3X more than what it did a few years back and the same goes for anything with VW on it, many have stoped selling anything with the logo on.
I know first hand of this, Greg Modelmog who owns (formaly) VWparts.net was forced to change to Piersideparts.net due to these issues, WTF they had been trading for some 32 years until last year when VW started putting pressure on, he is not allowed to advertise or put up anything with a VW logo.
I think bottom line is money, the attitude is fall in line with the bulling or pay up.

Why do you think Golfwagen is now called Goldwagen...... and believe me they are not the only ones that are doing it ,all manufacturers have "upped" their game regarding this in the past couple of years .

[splitbusahollic]

i still think they are a great company and that they make great cars...and they have to move with the times to stay on top of the market. (most people are in business to make money as far as i knew.)
there are no vehicles irrespective of brand, that have no problems....look how often Toyota has to recall cars for problematic stuff, and Hyundai is not exempt from this either.
VWSA employ thousands of people...and that in my book is a great thing. no one is perfect.

having a look at our logo this morning....i think it can be a bit confusing....as at the bottom all it says is VW.SA
so if you stumble onto this site and read that for the first time it could lead you to believe that VWSA has something to do with it.
there are many ways to make small changes to the name and have no issues.....
Vintage Wagons SA ?? SA Vintage VW ?? i just think you can't say VWSA in that order.
we are all emotional and love what we do and all of us , i'm sure will fight to the end to protect what we have.....and it's got nothing to do with how big or small
the enemy is .....if you are using something of theirs without permission... then you are in the wrong.
and regarding our logo being in the photo taken at the Auto-pavilion, it only features in one pic and even then it's not clearly visible.

think out the box, then decide.
i love everything VW.

[Tony Z]

seeing as the international name code for South Africa is actually ZA and not SA, wouldnt it help to have the logo changed to remove the SA and change this to ZA? A google search of VWZA results in no volkswagen hits. Unfortunately searching for vw.za results in http://www.vw.co.za

Thinking again, whaat about just removing the VW from the bottom of the logo? or blurring it?
And making changes to the heading: from

Aircooled VW South Africa
Forum for Aircooled VW enthusiasts

To:

Aircooled VW South Africa
Forum for Aircooled VW enthusiasts

This forum is not associated with VW or any Volkswagen companies

Then you have it right out there in the open on every page. If someone still gets confused, then they need a little more IQ

[Retrobug]

can also extend the outer white lines on the V in the logo to form an X!
Then they cant say it's a VW logo!

[jolas]

VWSA can go get stuffed, I can't believe what I'm reading.
With the introduction of their water cooled cars 40 odd years ago and their disgusting attitude towards existing air cooled vehicle owners (yes they DID toss out, destroy, get rid of all their aircooled parts), their lack of historical records and archives, (anyone ever tried phoning them up for technical info on a paint colour code or info on carpets, vinyl, etc), they must just get lost. I don't go to a VW agent looking for a part only to get laughed at ! I want to go and buy or order the damned thing - you know - spend some money ? Hello ?
You can go to any Mercedes Benz agent with a part number for a fifty year old vehicle (car or truck) and you will still be able to buy it - a genuine factory part - THAT is customer loyalty. VWSA has lost the plot sadly, sorry, but I don't think they make "peoples" cars anymore.
Along with my aircooleds, we have always had a water pumper in the house, mainly Golfs, fantastic little car (sorry Fig ) and currently a Polo. The Polo is due for replacement and this will be the last VW (water cooled) we ever buy. Parts, servicing, etc, etc, cost far too much, you are'nt allowed to go into the workshop and chat with the mechanic or see what he's doing,(to be fair, not a VW practice only), the person you deal with at the workshop reception desk knows stuff all about mechanical issues, you have to deal with these ridiculous survey phone calls after the service, I could go on.
This is SO two faced, with their new vehicle releases, promotions, and all the rest, they come looking for old aircooled vehicles to display and brag and boast about - and now this ???
I hope you are right Jacques and Herman, that this message has'nt really come from VWSA themselves, but perhaps some junior clerk or moegoe laywer who has'nt spent enough time and energy researching on who or what the (real) Volk on this forum, and the forum itself are all about

[Ron&Gill]

i love everything VW.

I like you even better now...

[Sambabus]

....look how often Toyota has to recall cars for problematic stuff,

This was a desperate effort on the part of American Car Manufactures heading towards the recession in 08 and 09 to create a loss of credibility in the japs and korean cars, in order to try and slow down the rate at which the yanks were losing thier market share globally and to try and cash in on the American public wanting to buy "good ol american". Toyota recalled Thier cars because it was cheaper than an advertising campein stating the opposite.

[Blitzkrieg]

So much of fail in this thread based on generalisations and stereotypes

[eben]

Hellopeter?

[Tony Z]

nice logo!!

[retrovan]

Like the temp. logo adjustment.

I do believe we will get away with the removal of VW.SA at the bottom ring of our logo, the SA flag can not be an infringement and can not be claimed as infringement even with a W & a V on it.

Lets hear what they say, and negotiate for minimum change,

Still ready to take it up with the VWSA Big Boss myself.

Herman

[IMPI]

To V.W. I have decided to use the dots so that I may not infringe on them. To their credit they have started VW classic whereby they will licence parts and sell off some old stock: http://www.volkswagen-classic-parts.de/
The amount of parts is very small but its a start.

What we could do is to step into a VW dealer and all demand a set of rubber floormats or some part that we need each of us something different if they are unable to supply we have a mass action law suit against them especially if it is something safety critical like brakes suspension wiperblades etc. this would raise quite a stink I would imagine. V.W. would probably argue that they dont have anything to do with obselete models (something like the man who sued God film)

It would also be quite interesting to research who actually owns the VW roundel as VW cannot claim to have invented it as it was built by the Nazi regime's Arbeitsfront taken as legitemate war bounty and eventually given back to germany The state of lower saxony actually owned a large chunk. there was Volksradios, volksturm,volksjager,volksboot, and probably quite a few which I dont know about.

FWIW I had to sign an agreement at work where I had to agree not to discuss my employer in any way outside of work. not on my PC twitter, facebook, work pc, telephone in my own time or on company time and about 20 pages of other legalese. It stated that it doesnt matter whether my discussion is positive or negative LOL

Damn when all is said and done I wouldnt mind finding some new casings heads etc that are genuine V.W.
Armand

[eben]

I'm just worried about how long they are taking to reply to me...
It definitely came from VW..... If they don't reply to me by their own deadline... then I'll revert the site to what it used to be plus some disclaimers in the footer of each page...

[fig]

I'm just worried about how long they are taking to reply to me...
It definitely came from VW..... If they don't reply to me by their own deadline... then I'll revert the site to what it used to be plus some disclaimers in the footer of each page...

VW and its legal parasties aren't used to negotiating this stuff. They just expect you to bend over ...

[1963]

Volkswagen Volkswagen Volkswagen Volkswagen Volkswagen Volkswagen Volkswagen VW VW VW VW VW VW VW VW VW VW VW Go ahead and sue me, you silly buggers.

No, I wouldn't buy a modern Volkswagen at all. Their advertising is always been better than their product. I think, if they hadn't had the Citi Golf (an idea, incidentally, suggested by their ad agency), I think VWSA (suck on that, you fools) would be a periphery manufacturer. If you look at the stats of car sales in the US, there was a time quite recently when VW only sold 1000 cars in an entire year throughout America!

They also need to learn that, especially with social media, the company no longer defines its brand image. The customer does. The social media world does. This letter is an example. Virtually everyone who has read this thread now has their back up.

Q: Four cars, travelling from different directions, all arrive simultaneously at an intersection. Who goes first?
A: The salesman in the black Gti.

Anyway, those are my opinions. And here's a complete heresy - having driven both, I have to say that I think the Citroen 2CV was a more thoughtful engineering exercise than the bug. (Is this where I get tarred, feathered, flamed, and banned from ACVW forever?)

(I say it after just walking home for one-and-a-half hours 'cos the 1200 petered out in Rabie Street, on the day when I left the cellphone on charge.)