Delorean Motor Company (DMC) Texas threatening to sue Delorean owners now

[EngineerGuY]

In my case, we hired a trademark lawyer. He said it comes down to few main things.

1. Is the name your using the same or close enough to be mistaken by the general public to be the same?

2. Are you in the same business or is your business likely to be misconstrued to be the same by the general public.

3. Would a failure of your product possibly hurt their business?

In our case, we spelled Bell, Belle, as in “southern belle”. That was not different enough. But the biggest problem was we made helicopter parts. If we made furniture, we would be fine, even if we spelled it Bell. Obviously, Bell had deep pockets and we changed our name.

In this case, I may not understand, but does DMCH rent cars? Are the ads such that people might think they are renting from DMCH? I donÂ’t see how identifying a car you rent as a Delorean (if it is) , can be a trademark infringement. Even if you were renting a Corvette and calling it a Delorean, I think your problem is fraud, not trademark infringement. I suppose a lawyer could argue that a break down of the rental car reflects on DMCH, but I think it would be a weak argument since there might not be a single part on the car from DMCH.

DMC has nothing to do with the renting of Time Machines, never have. No one would ever confuse the 2, as no logos are used or even similar to DMC. All rental websites have their own LLC's and have disclaimers stating they are not affiliated with Delorean Motor Company. They don't have much of a case from what I am hearing from others.

[JBaker4981]

Does anyone have any contacts at DMC Texas such as James Espey that can get this thing squashed?? This is a potential huge black eye for the community should this gain traction.

Jason, If this is real then I recommend calling Houston and put this to bed. Stop stirring the sh!t pot.

[dtavres]

Fake DMC is just bullying under the guise of 'protecting "their" brand. They didn't invent the DeLorean. They didn't build the DeLorean. They're just trying to capitalize on someone else's work - whether they paid to use the name or not.

If Fake DMC went out of business, I'm 100% sure they would sell the inventory to someone else. (Hopefully someone who WOULD actually service the DeLorean community properly.) They would not just sit on the inventory and keep it from owners.

Fake DMC's business plan is to build up the brand (that they didn't create) and sell it to a bigger company - THAT is why they are bullying DeLorean owners and small businesses that don't build cars.

And I'm quite sure SonnyV (james espey) is still on here lurking under different names.

[dtavres]

Jason, If this is real then I recommend calling Houston and put this to bed. Stop stirring the sh!t pot.

Once this becomes a legacy media and social media story, Fake DMC will look FAR worse for how they treat owners.

[Michael]

I still am having a hard time believing this is true or at least, the entirely of the complaint. I just can't wrap my head around people who have dedicated their business model (for the most part) of serving the owners and community, to just start going after individual owners over something that was obviously not intended to infringe on their trademark.

It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. How much money are other DeLorean branded parts sites siphoning away from them?...and this time machine rental guy is the guy they consider enemy#1...or is it just low hanging fruit? I seriously doubt that any calls to them will be answered or even publicly addressed. Not on this or any legal action past present or future.

None of this adds up.

[deloreanlvr]

DeloreanRental.com / Jason did indeed file a trademark with the US Patent Trademark Office...

https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate....glish&p_d=trmk
Select a "Basic Word Mark Search"
https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate....805:wo4gm6.1.1
Type in "Delorean Rental" in the search term
and you'll find this result...
Delorean Rental Trademark Application.jpg

Doing so obviously agitated the Delorean Motor Company leading to the cease and desist.
The trademark was abandoned on January 27th.

[dtavres]

I just can't wrap my head around people who have dedicated their business model (for the most part) of serving the owners and community

If this was the first instance, I'd agree with you, but Fake DMC Houston has a long history of bullying owners and small businesses. This is just the most recent one (that we're all aware of.)

My opinion is that Fake DMC does NOT care about the cars or the owners - they're just trying to build up their business so they can sell it.

Ask older owners about some of the stories... There was an owner years ago who had a custom muffler built for his DeLorean. Other owners loved it and asked where he had it done. The shop said they didn't want to do a bunch of one-offs, so the DeLorean owner ponied up the cash and had several made, so he could sell them to other DeLorean owners who wanted the muffler. Enter Fake DMC... They sent him a C&D. For something HE created and had built. It's plain 'ol bullying and intimidation.

I think that the only 'misappropriation' going on here, is Fake DMC trying to kill all "competition" (seriously? Fake DMC doesn't rent DeLoreans, and didn't build our cars.)

A Fake DMC owner once said to my face "Why should I care what you think? You haven't spent any money here in two years."

[JBaker4981]

Once this becomes a legacy media and social media story, Fake DMC will look FAR worse for how they treat owners.

If it is true, yes. What I also understand is that Jason has a long history of starting sh!t in order to monopolize the stupid DeLorean Time Machine Rental thing. This is why I said what I did and I will leave it at that.

[BLWNAWY]

If this was the first instance, I'd agree with you, but Fake DMC Houston has a long history of bullying owners and small businesses...
Ask older owners about some of the stories.

Remember that Stephen learned this stuff from the master. Way back in the late 80's ol' Ed Bernstein of DeLorean One, Stephen's former partner, sent me a similar Cease and Desist letter. I promptly told him where he could stick it, and never heard another word. There's a reason you don't see Ford, GM, Chrysler etc. trying this crap. It won't work, and will cause negative publicity.

Still lurking...

[Malevy]

Still lurking...

Ha! I was just thinking of you the other day.. Wondered how you were doing. Good to see you!