DMC Northwest?

[Trstno1]

Does anyone know why DMC Northwest is no longer displayed in the 'Contact US' section of delorean.com? They are still in business right?

[sdg3205]

Toby is still operating under DeLorean Parts Northwest. He is no longer affiliated with DMCH.

[Alex Brooks]

Toby is still operating under DeLorean Parts Northwest. He is no longer affiliated with DMCH.

And DeLorean Services Northwest. I don’t know the story of why he left the Houston network but I wish the best for him.

[Shep]

They're the third franchise to abandon ship.

Rumor mill ahead

UK left knowing US trademark law doesn't apply in the UK, so they're free to call the shop a "DeLorean" shop and quit paying franchising dues. I'm sure the vast selection of parts UK has come out with that DMCH was squashing sales of with a website that would simply not show them didn't help matters any. Midwest and California are still affected by this, but I would be shocked if they defected given Cameron's heading California and Midwest seems perfectly content as a franchise and doesn't have many of their own parts. (Side note: it would still be nice to know the complete list and see them. DMCH could learn a thing or two and carry the parts their franchises make. There's money in that market, and I'm hoping they're in the process of fixing it.)

Florida left after DMCH wanted them to abandon their (lucrative) business repairing more expensive cars and go strictly DeLorean. When you're repairing and dealing Maseratis and BMW's quite nicely, you're just begging for a mass exodus of the mechanics you hire if you comply. If the rumor mill is correct, DMCH shot themselves in the foot there, there was no way Florida was going to agree to that.

Northwest I have no insight on at all, this is news to me. I can speculate as much as the rest of you, but I certainly hope DMCH wasn't stupid enough to make the same mistake twice and try to stifle the parts DMCNW makes.

Again, rumor mill. Emphasis on the "this could be complete crap" part.

End rumor mill

With the number of DMC locations being halved, I can't help but wonder how this is affecting DMCH's bottom dollar. I mean, I know we all get annoyed when they constantly proclaim the vaporware of a "new car" they're building, but the exodus of franchises is the sign of an internal crisis behind closed doors. Whatever it is, they're keeping a tight lid on it, the rumor mill is murky at best anyhow. But the writing is on the walls, extremely legible and quite detailed. I don't know what's going on, but I don't like the looks of this. I'm at the point as a business where partnerships are important. I'm building my R&D around future needs rather than looking at the "now", a large part of figuring out what will be needed down the road is working with those that know what supplies will run dry and the difficulty of sustaining the need. If DMCH is stumbling all over themselves and struggling to keep their balance, I'm more inclined to exercise caution than to blindly ignore signs of a deeper turmoil. I for one am hoping they can get a grip on this. This just doesn't look good at all and it needs to start looking halfway decent at least. Just please DMCH, all I want for Christmas is to never mention the "new car" again...

On the other hand, each new franchise that defects is another potential business partnership, but Florida at least doesn't seem interested.

[Dangermouse]

What UK franchise ?

[DeLoreanGo Arran]

What UK franchise ?

Quite.... there has never been a UK franchise.... I think I would know

There was a "DMC Europe" franchise in The Netherlands, but that's not the UK Now known as "DeLorean Europe", they have always had their own website, which has always been called DeLorean Europe. I'm no expert on trademarking laws and/or what trademarks DMCH claim to, or do, own, but I don't think it's relevant in any of these cases anyway. There are various people who own various DeLorean trademarks in Europe in a variety of categories. UK trademark law is different, and largely separate to, European trademark law. For example to own a UK trademark in a particular category you'd have to actually be "doing" that thing in the UK. Anyway - not relevant to this thread.

[Shep]

Quite.... there has never been a UK franchise.... I think I would know

There was a "DMC Europe" franchise in The Netherlands, but that's not the UK Now known as "DeLorean Europe", they have always had their own website, which has always been called DeLorean Europe. I'm no expert on trademarking laws and/or what trademarks DMCH claim to, or do, own, but I don't think it's relevant in any of these cases anyway. There are various people who own various DeLorean trademarks in Europe in a variety of categories. UK trademark law is different, and largely separate to, European trademark law. For example to own a UK trademark in a particular category you'd have to actually be "doing" that thing in the UK. Anyway - not relevant to this thread.

Okay, wow, rumor mill + misinformation there, my apologies!! (Insert the "that was complete crap" bit here on DMC having a UK franchise)

So the guys in the Netherlands are still a franchise to DMCH then? Or am I reading too much into that?

I do know Poland's trademarking laws are entirely distinct from the US ones due to a EU ruling stating sovereignty of its protection status (this is why Tom of DeLoreanA.com can put DMC logos on everything -- he can explain better than on that one). A few kickstarter campaigns I've backed from France had issues when US-based companies would infringe on their trademarks with no recourse, ditto for US kickstarter campaigns with UK infringements. They do have international trademarks, but to the best of my knowledge DMCH does not use them as it is exorbitantly expensive to do so. I believe last I checked it was ten grand or more, compared to a few hundred for a US-only trademark. Picking target markets to trademark is the way to go. "Raccin Industries" is trademarked both in text and in image formats, this was a looooong discussion after the lawyer who filed it and I had found out someone had parked a relevant website URL to try and get cash from me and I wanted to boot them out on the basis of I owned the rights to the name, and figuring out who parked it and where they were based. Turns out, getting clever works better. ".com" is antiquated now.

[DMC-81]

They're the third franchise to abandon ship.

Rumor mill ahead


Florida left after DMCH wanted them to abandon their (lucrative) business repairing more expensive cars and go strictly DeLorean. When you're repairing and dealing Maseratis and BMW's quite nicely, you're just begging for a mass exodus of the mechanics you hire if you comply. If the rumor mill is correct, DMCH shot themselves in the foot there, there was no way Florida was going to agree to that.

Again, rumor mill. Emphasis on the "this could be complete crap" part.

End rumor mill

Shep, a correction...Florida never left... DMCFL moved to a more ideal central location... Orlando. The last time I picked up parts ( i.e. last week), there were tons of cars in for service and a few very nice examples for sale.

You should visit sometime.

[Shep]

I'm going to smack the idiot that told me all of this, I think he may have been yanking my chain (can you smack people through phones yet?)

[DeLoreanGo Arran]

So the guys in the Netherlands are still a franchise to DMCH then?

No - they are each completely separate companies and businesses.

trademarking.............I believe last I checked it was ten grand or more...................

Certainly as far as trademarking in the UK is concerned it's just a case of filling in a form and registering a trademark, and then dealing with anyone who challenges that. The "dealing with" is dealt with by a human, and common sense applies. It needn't cost 10 grand, I suppose it depends who you're up against and how frivolous the case is. If I wanted to trademark a housebuilding company called "DeLorean Houses", I could do that, as long as I built a house, I could probably represent myself and win any case. It might get a little more complicated and costly if I was doing it with a car though
Unless you're looking to exploit it by - say - licensing it to a toy manufacturer - I don't see the relevance of it though, certainly in the category of car servicing anyway.

.......".com" is antiquated now.

I fully agree with this and tell people this every day. Doesn't matter if you are anything.com - very few new customers type "something.com" into an address bar these days - it's all done on Google, a domain name is near-irrelevant.