just received an interesting email from Shabbir Zainuddin, the Intellectual Property Rights Assistant at cafepress. one of the sources i use for merchandise for the akciddento store. seems that they don't like the use of the word 'volkswagen' in the expression 'volkswagen drag race championships'. i'll write to him/her and see where this leads. read the extended entry for the full details and my response. this could be the beginning of something fun...
Dear CafePress Storeowner,
It has recently come to our attention that you have created a merchandise store through the services of CafePress.com that may contain image(s) copyright/trademark protected by others. As stated in our Intellectual Property Rights Policy and Members Agreement all designs must be original or have proper licensing.
The use of a copyrighted name, image, logo such as that of Volkswagen / Audi can constitute both copyright and trademark infringement. If your designs are similar to any brand or copyright, you must either have permission from the copyright holder for the images or not use the material for profit. Even if a product is not marked up from its ?base price? (price offered by CafePress.com to storeowner), the sale is still legally considered a ?for profit? sale.
Intellectual property infringement is a serious matter. Penalties for copyright infringement can reach $150,000 per work infringed and penalties for trademark counterfeiting can reach $1,000,000 per trademark for each type of goods sold.
In the event that you have not properly secured the right to use the images/pictures in your store for the sale of merchandise we request that you remove the images immediately.
We appreciate your time and look forward to your prompt response. Please respond no later then Wed Jun 11 to avoid the closure of your merchandise store.
If you have any questions relating to the above mentioned please let us know.
Best regards,
Shabbir Zainuddin
CafePress.com
Intellectual Property Rights Assistant
Trademark@cafepress.com
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Dear Shabbir Zainuddin
thankyou for your email of 10th june 2003, if you care to look at my cafepress site you will see that all artwork and designs are wholly original works created and owned in their entirety by myself.
in the header description the word 'volkswagen' is used twice in the following context.
'support team akciddento as they race the rookie year in the UK Volkswagen Drag Race series. buy quality mechandise securely and help speed sambasaurus - the 1965 volkswagen type II microbus walkthru sliding door samba into the points!
the first occurrence is descriptive of a Volkswagen endorsed activity and the second is the correct name of a volkswagen product that i own.
I appreciate the legitimate concerns of cafepress in areas of possible copyright infringement within it's users stores but as i am sure you can appreciate both references to the word 'volkswagen' are legitimate descriptions allowable in law.
as a long time cafepress user, both with the 'akciddento' store and others i am somewhat concerned that your email indicates that i have only one hour and fourtyfive minutes to respond.
I would be grateful if you could respond at your earliest opportunity.
best regards
dan buzzo
team akciddento
Posted by akciddento at June 10, 2003 10:12 PM