The following reply was posted by vwvortex1:

Quite frankly you can blame our legal system and its vague laws concerning protecting a trademark. Basically the law says you have to "actively" protect your trademark or you could face potentially losing it to public domain. The problem is that they don't define what "active" is and that is open to intrepretation by the legal teams at these companies - some play the strict line others are more loose about it.

At the end of the day Mini does have a right to protect their name. However some of the ways companies go about doing this sort of thing will just hurt them in the end (temporarily till the whole thing passes however). When they don't try to work with the site/publication and only pursue a hardline tactic with threatening letters, they are just going to look like the bad guys. To make it worse, there are now "bounty hunter" law firms out there that work under contract for a corporation and, on behalf of that manufacturer will actively look for websites that are using a model name, manufacturer's name or any other trademark that is being infringed and will send a cease and desist letter to them demanding they stop use and turn it over to them. For eveyone one they turn over back to the manufacturer they get a nice bounty of money. So what happens is that an outside law firm is likely only going to take the hardline and likely cause damage to the brand's name in the process.

I think the manufacturers are trying to get their hands around how best to handle the whole Internet thing. VW's new program to register to "use" a VW logo on an enthusiast website is very proactive and the only manufacturer I know of that has done something like this. Hopefully more manufacturers follow suit in the future and help to forge a better relationship with the companies and enthusiast groups that keep their brands alive.

- jamie

The following reply was posted by vwvortex1:
>>
>>Quite frankly you can blame our legal system and its vague laws concerning protecting a trademark. Basically the law says you have to "actively" protect your trademark or you could face potentially losing it to public domain. The problem is that they don't define what "active" is and that is open to intrepretation by the legal teams at these companies - some play the strict line others are more loose about it.
>>
>>At the end of the day Mini does have a right to protect their name. However some of the ways companies go about doing this sort of thing will just hurt them in the end (temporarily till the whole thing passes however). When they don't try to work with the site/publication and only pursue a hardline tactic with threatening letters, they are just going to look like the bad guys. To make it worse, there are now "bounty hunter" law firms out there that work under contract for a corporation and, on behalf of that manufacturer will actively look for websites that are using a model name, manufacturer's name or any other trademark that is being infringed and will send a cease and desist letter to them demanding they stop use and turn it over to them. For eveyone one they turn over back to the manufacturer they get a nice bounty of money. So what happens is that an outside law firm is likely only going to take the hardline and likely cause damage to the brand's name in the process.
>>
>>I think the manufacturers are trying to get their hands around how best to handle the whole Internet thing. VW's new program to register to "use" a VW logo on an enthusiast website is very proactive and the only manufacturer I know of that has done something like this. Hopefully more manufacturers follow suit in the future and help to forge a better relationship with the companies and enthusiast groups that keep their brands alive.
>>
>>- jamie

Let's not endorse our own philosophy. Let's disrespect our biggest fans. Let's tread on the little guy. Shame on you BMW/NA!!