DaimlerChrysler Corporation filed a trademark infringement complaint in a North Carolina Federal Court Monday to protect its Jeep® brand name from being tarnished by improper use on the Internet.
If you've been reading the rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys newsgroup or any one of the number of Jeep-related message boards lately, then this probably isn't news to you, but the guys over at http://hardcorejeep.com are being sued by DaimlerChrysler for their use of the Jeep® brand name. Why, among the many, many non-DaimlerChrysler Web Sites with the word "Jeep" in their name is hardcorejeep.com being singled out? DaimlerChrysler claims it has something to do with the scantily clad women posing next to Jeep products. Here's DaimlerChrysler's official press release (in its entirety) on the matter: DaimlerChrysler Corporation filed a trademark infringement complaint in a North Carolina Federal Court Monday to protect its Jeep® brand name from being tarnished by improper use on the Internet. The suit was filed against a website operator with pattern of misusing Jeep trademarks on several websites as well as associating Jeep products with pornographic material on his website. Ironically, the website operator recently removed some of the pornographic material after he was threatened with separate copyright lawsuit for copying and posting the pornographic images without permission. The Web Site operator, Nathan W. Collier has been very active on the rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys newsgroup (if you're not sure how to access the newsgroup, the easiest way to to use Google's awesome groups feature) trying to rally support for his cause. A North Carolina television station recently interviewed Nathan about the situation, be sure to check out their article. So what do you think about this lawsuit? Does Nathan have a chance to be Davey to DaimlerChrysler's Goliath? Let us know i the Reader Reaction section at the bottom of this story.
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