Cease and desist request - So-Cal Speed shop VS So-Cheap

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I got a letter today...... </font>

Re: Infringement of SO-CAL SPEED SHOP Trademark and Logo

Dear Mr. Ennis:

We represent Alex Xydias and SO-CAL Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a/So-Cal Speed Shop ("SO-CAL"), respectively owner and exclusive licensee of U.S. Tradmark Registation.....for the SO-CAL SPEED SHOP Trademark and Logo Design.....

We have noted that you are using the SO-CHEAP mark inside the same distinctive SO-CAL SPEED SHOP oval logo in the sale of apparel and other goods without the authorization of SO-CAL.

Our client is concerned....that your use of the SO-CHEAP logo is likely to cause confusion with the SO-CAL SPEED SHOP mark and logo.....Your use of the SO-CHEAP mark and logo is likely to lead the public to believe that your products are license by, sponsored by, or otherwise affiliated with SO_CAL which is not true.
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I am there for writing to request that you please immediately desist from any further use of the SO-CHEAP mark and logo.
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Also, by May 14th, 2004 please (1) recall all goods that you have distributed under the SO-CHEAP mark and logo; (2) produce and accounting of all product that you have manufactured or sold over the last four years which utilize the SO-CHEAP mark and logo which accounting includes (i) product description;(ii) the dates of manufacture and sale; (iii) the amount of manufactured and sold;(Iv) the name of the distributor and retail outlet items were sold to; and (v) the sale price of each product: and (3) contact me to confirm that you will comply with the above.

I am pretty sure that the two logos are quite different...


Hey So-What....did you get one too??

 

..

 

Holy shit what a bunch of losers.
I will no longer wear my SO-CAL coat.
So what are you going to do?

 

So they have copywrites on "ovals",
When I look at it the colors, text, and contrast/layout is diff.

Whats this world coming to?
Sorry,
j

 

Where is that So-What speed shop web site??

There is also a guy who was selling So-What Shirts in Vegas this year. He was around before the So-What speed shop that is getting all the press lately. I wonder if he got a letter too.

 

Remember, parody is only protected speech if you're willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting off lawyers!

[ QUOTE ]
Holy shit what a bunch of losers.
I will no longer wear my SO-CAL coat.
So what are you going to do?

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope he starts selling SO-CHEAP coats

 

Wow, looks like SoCal doesn't get anymore of my money, either.
You should answer by telling them that you don't even sell parts, just T-shirts that emphasize "do it yourself hot rods." Do they REALLY think you are going to put them out of business.
First Ron's thing, now this...

 

I'm no copyright/trademark expert, but I believe your logo is significantly different enough.

Their text isn't reversed out.
Theirs is coloured.
Different font.
Different layout.

Let them spend the bucks.....they might learn something. At the risk of giving an irresponsble OPINION, ignore the letter!!

Dr J??

Only lawyers win in these situations.

 

What Happened with Ron?

 

BTW, I don't think Clark (So What) was selling things. But who knows?

 

I'll PM you...

 

And what's on May 14th? Their friday pub night? Need a little extra cash for beers?

 

Parody is the word.....

 

I went directly to the so-cheap web site to buy a shirt and when I ordered all I got was a blank page. I guess someone took it seriously. Anyway, I'll just make my own. I promise I wont sell any. SoCal doesn't make enough money anyway? -stick

 

Actually, now that I think of it, a former lawyer on here said they would offer advice to people with problems...Anyone know who that is?
Might be on the HAMB O DEX

 

YEah I went to the cafepress.com/socheap/ site to see if they were still available and it was down. I guess they got the letter too.

I need to call this laaaawyer tomorrow. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

i know Alex Xydias. hes actually a really nice guy and good artist. he came up with that logo and a lot of other t-shirt designs for so-cal. a lot of you may have seen him at Billet proof, VLV, GNR. i'm sure its the higher ups doing.

a few post back everybody was upset how Keith Wessner art was being copied. isn't this almost the same. there are some similartys but hay it's just my $.02

 

This is differnt, yet slightly the same as the artist rip off topic...

Its a parody, tho... you KNOW where the idea came from... its not like your stealing ORIGINALITY...

Dammit, i'm sick of the big corporations always trying to stick it in the little guy's ass.

FUCK soCal.

(dammit, I'm starting to sound like Dr J...)

Tell them you made a buck fifty and the three T shirts you made wore out already and you used them for rags... then they can go after the guy that ripped your shit off at vlv. lay low for awhile, and emerge from the ashes...

That sucks.

-J

 

sell me one of your shirts.

since i know Alex i'll go pick him up for lunch and walk into So-Cal wearing it. just to fuck with him and them. that would really piss everybody off. HAHA

 

tje only problem is these courport jerk offs have the time and money to fuk all of us around till we go broke !!!!!!!!!!!
ies it is close but who gives a fuk at this point so cal has not made any thing good in more years then i am old
they are only living off the past and should find some thing new to make money off of instead of trying to fuk some one out to have some fun !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

i should know not to give legal advise, but at the very least DO NOT send them ANYTHING regarding the products you sold! ie. where, qtys price etc. but you probably knew that.

personally i'd ignore it, but then i couldn't afford a lawyer to write a letter for me, nor do i got anything they could take...

fight it if you can.

in the meantime, i'll take another shirt!

oh and SO-CAL, if(haha, we KNOW you'll be reading this!) you read this, yes, you lose my business too. what little it is being there is a SO-CAL right in MY TOWN! i'll patronize the other rod shops then thank you. YOU DON"T FUCKING OWN HOT RODDING! YOU AIN"T FUCKING WALT DISNEY! go ahead and open this door, i'm sure someone will step up to the plate and put you out of business...is it again? i dunno but it takes some balls to send cease and decist letters when your whole product line steals from ALL of hot roddings history. maybe FORD will step up and fuck you up, and then fuck up every other hot rod parts suppleir just because THEY CAN, and YOU got COCKY. then we can all THANK SO-CAL for RUINING hot rodding. pfffft. so-cheap ain't takin shit from your pockets. maybe you haven't caught the last part of the name -CHEAP. you're products don't exactly cater to the budgets of even the "average" rodder. we are in different worlds, and sorry but we had a laugh at your expense, suck it up, leave the lawyers out of it and be a fucking HOT RODDER!

i can't remember his name, but the guy that runs the showroom of SO-CAL here got a chuckle out of my SO-CHEAP shirt when he saw it. i'll have to go down there and break the news to him. too bad, he's a nice guy, guess i can still stop by to shoot the shit.

 

its probably true, there are people who are paid to look for this type of stuff.

lets get SO-CHEAP shirts and go to SO-CAL speedshop to browse... id like to think Xydias is more into cars than pursuing logo parodys... but its his lifes work, and i wont fault him for protecting it.

then again its my money, and i dont have to shop at SO-CAL

 

I'm going to play Devil's advocate here....... As mentioned before, a couple weeks ago HAMBers were ready to hang people for art that was "kinda" close to Keith weesners'...... and although your art is "technically" different from SoCal's, it's quite OBVIOUS that the "gimmick" of your logo was to intentionally resemble the SoCal name and logo.......I have nothing against SoCheap or anyone affiliated with it whatsoever, so please don't take this as a personal attack.........But I say hey, if you made a few bucks off shirts, consider it a good run and cut your losses now........If SoCheap is a legitimate business or shop then you should have no problem whatsoever creating your OWN logo and corporate identity. Why would you even want to have something associated with your company that even faintly resembled anything else unless you purposely intended on riding on someone elses name?... that's where the ripoff is......i would suppose you could rightfully argue that the art IS TECHNICALLY different enough, but the intent of resemblance is blatantly obvious. Now, that being said, this is NOT a little guy versus big company thing at all.....these copyright laws and artistic licenses are put in place to protect everyone. even companies that make more money than you. Justice is blind. I have wondered how long it was going to take for awhile now anyways..... and I almost said something about this when the Weesner post came up......principals mean nothing if you only stick by them when it's easy to do so....... my 2 cents.......

 

haha ray!

you rule

mcphail brings up a good point though. *SOMETIMES* justice is blind, and lets say you were in SO-CAL's shoes...

when i saw the SO-CHEAP logo, immediately i thought of SO-CAL.. its a catch22 for me, there a lot of hot rod history in the name and i give respect where its due, but i also think SO-CHEAP is a clever gimmick and poses no threat to SO-CAL speedshop.

can we still get SO-CHEAP shirts?

 

put me down for a XXL,you got'em in black so the grease don't show?

 

i play the legal game at work and deal with this bull shit on the same end as so cheap is dealing with i (the company i work for) has delt with this bs many of times and there is no need to go to bat for it it will cost all of us more then we all can piss away in our average joe life

 

Lady justice is blind, deaf, mute, dumb, though influenced by money, and has absolutely no sense of feeling (pain or pressure, or pleaseure, for that matter) in her lower abdominal orifices... in short, a greedy freako gimp with hardly any clothes on lugging around a rigged scale...

 

I would think you could just say that it is parody, and even if you're making money off it, it's still protected legally. Look at tshirthell.com's shirts... a lot of them take ideas from major brands, and it's all parody. I don't think they've got a good foothold to sue anyone... just to scare you off. Like when Microsoft sued some collage kid because his name was Mike Roe, and he made a site called mikeroesoft.com. Because you're a big name doesn't mean you fucking own ovals and letters.

I fucking hate those guys anyway. They are goldchainers that try to look hip to the younger guys into hot rods. 120 bucks for a Dickies jacket with you logo on it? Bite me.

 

Funny Ray should mention Walt Disney .. I have allways thought that Alex, Pierson-Bros &amp; Dean Moon got their Logo and paint-sheem-ideas from looking at this little guy

 

DAMN THAT DIRTY RAT!