Everyone,
After many months of discussion I'm happy to report that a resolution has been reached with BMW. Here is the copy of the press release related to this:

BMW of North America, LLC and BMW AG have reached a settlement with Mini Cooper Online and its President, Mr. Mark Ferguson, of their dispute regarding MINI trademarks. The terms of the parties' settlement are confidential, but both sides look forward to the possibility of resuming constructive communication with one another in the near future.



As part of this settlement we will be changing the name of the site to North American Motoring. I'm very happy with this name as I believe it captures the focus of the site.

Over the next few weeks (90 days to be exact), minicooperonline.com will still get you to the site but I encourage you to begin using www.northamericanmotoring.com or namotoring.com (for a shortcut). Furthermore I will configure the site so that any use of minicooperonline.com will automatically redirect you to the correct northamericanmotoring.com address.

In the next few days you will see some subtle changes to the site like the header, the footer of pages, email address changes, etc. If you happen to find something that I have broken during this transition please let me know as soon as possible so that I can resolve it as quickly as possible.

In closing I'd like to thank everyone for their support throughout the last few months and your continued interest in being part of this community.

Best regards,

Mark

 

FINALLY!

As much as I wanted the name to stay as minicooperonline, this is not so bad. Besides, the old timers will always call this MCO out of habit.

Welcome to NAM!

How I love the smell of burning rubber and brakes in the morning!

 

>>How I love the smell of burning rubber and brakes in the morning!

It smells like...like victory! :smile:

 

Mark..
i'm very happy for you!
i know this must of been a most disturbing process to deal with.
time to get back to business and kicking butt on the track!
cheers and thanks for giving us the best forum in NORTH AMERICA!

_________________
10.03.03 PW MC OFFICIALLY TOTALLED! RIP

 

YAY! I'm glad NAM is getting underway, and the BMW/MINIUSA mess is over - it's a long time coming. I like the name, it's easy and relaxed and fun.

Motor-On!

 

Cheers, baby!! Congrats on the resolution of the legal issues! I like the new name....sure smells like victory to me! Tee hee!

 

Thank goodness it's all over with.

It still sucks that you have to give up MCO, but NAM works too!

-Rob

 

Glad it's over, sad MCO is no more. All hail the new North American Motoring.com!!!
You're the happy poppa of a new MINI wewbsite. Remember those heady days of yore?........ Blocked 'em out, huh? Well, we're here for you, Mr. Ferguson! We won't go away no matter how many name changes you have to use. This site is waaaaayyyy to important to MINI owners, so I doubt if we would have let you go, anyway. Happy to be here!

BCNU,
Rob in Dago

 

I hope they wake up and just bloody hire you to run the owners lounge.

That thing is sadly lacking...

I like the new name.

 

Okay, I can live with the new name...has a nice ring to it...I like it!

 

I like the name a lot.

I have been waiting for MONTHS for some decals!! Soon?

 

Congratulations, Mark!

 

Looks like BMW got the best of you...

 

>>I like the name a lot.
>>
>>I have been waiting for MONTHS for some decals!! Soon?

Yep...new shirts, hats, calendars, decals and more coming in time for Christmas. I hope to have more information in the next couple of weeks along with the ability to preorder.

Mark

 

its better then Ilovemymini.com :smile:

 

Well, I honestly can't say I like the new name, but I am certainly glad that you can direct your energies toward more rewarding aspects of the site, Mark. I'm sure everyone's relieved to see an amicable resolution. Now for that snazzy new site software...

FYI to all - I use Netscape 7.1, and had to go to the popup manager to enable popups from the new domain name in order to get the Pulse to work.

 

I"m going to resist the urge to reply to the negative post and
offer my congratulations to Mark for reaching this setttlement.

Good work , Mark. I hope for a similar resolution.

Onward!

Jeff

_________________
<IMG SRC="
http://store3.yimg.com/I/miniswag_1763_837178">

http://www.miniswag.com - An MCO sponsor

 

Congrats! Glad to see two sides who seemed so far apart have come together. I've just changed your URL in my Toolbar Favorites. Thanks for your efforts and keep up the good work.

 

Congrats Mark. I’m glad it’s over with.

Let’s just motor on.

 

It's workin! Yes, I like the new name!

I hope for even more continued success!

 

Congratulations Mark for finding resolution! I'm not wild about the new name (either in its full or shortened forms), but in testimony to the fact that the name really isn't important I only discovered that the site had changed when I stumbled into this thread after 15 minutes of reading (what turned out to be) the new site. Onward and upward!

ps - Mark, you may want to change your signature?

 

Congratulations, Mark!

All I can think of (at 5:45 in the morning) is Robin Williams bellowing...

&quot;GOOD MORNING [Viet] NAM!&quot;

 

You can call me Ray. You can call me May. Who cares. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it's still MCO. The congregation makes the church and not a building.

Your efforts are appreciated.

Long Live MCO. Welcome NAM.

To BMW..&quot;Up your *** with Mobil gas&quot;

To MCO and now NAM...&quot;Happy Motoring&quot;

 

:smile: :smile:

Chow!

Donna
donna@dcmetrominis.org

 

All good things Mark :smile:

I personally like the name and new logo.

Let's all...motor ...forward :smile:

Peace,
D