Pistonpump

Busted!

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So i was at a flea market last weekend and was talking to guy who had 30 sandwich boards set up with all kinds of decals for sale. I live in Wisconsin and this is the home of Harley motorcycles. While I was talking to him a guy who works for Harley came up and asked him for his license from Harley to sell the trademarked logos. The guy who was selling them was speechless. The Harley employee started taking pictures of him and his sandwich boards. His trucks license plate and everything else he could get while the guy started packing up his stuff. The seller left and then asked me if I was associated with him. He was telling me how he has the power to go after these guys since he is in the marketing dept. My knees started to get a little weak after hearing his stories.

The bottom line is being in the wrong place at the wrong time will cost you everything. The guy selling the decals has 11 different Harley logos that he got pictures of. His experience is getting 10,000 dollars per trademark violation. He also will send the sellers info to any other registered trademark he has on the boards. Budweiser, Miller, Dewalt etc.

SO BEWARE!

Geo

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:thumbsup: Thanks for the info . I think it is crazy & wrong to sell stuff like that . Especially in that situation or an e-bay type place . Making a decal for yourself or a buddy isn't right , but is a long ways away from doing that . It isn't fair to the people/companies that pay the licensing fees to have to compete against people/companies that don't . The gamble that guy took doing it isn't going to pay off it seems .

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We've got a guy with a store at the local mall. He has just about every logo you can think of on display to cut. I'm sure he isn't licensed to cut any of them.

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How do you go about getting permission? I sent an email to MAZDA USA and they replied with a number, left a message at that number about getting permission to cut vinyl and have yet to receive a call back...

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I know from personal experience that Harley is especially ruthless about this stuff. Not personal experience that they've come after me, but I worked at a Harley dealership for many years. They will go after anyone selling anything even slightly resembling their logos. They don't always have a case, but they'll always go after it, if only to stop it. I've seen them go after old ladies with bar and shield pot holders at flea markets, contractors who use a bar and shield logo as their company logo, you name it. There was even a small motorcycle repair shop in town that advertised that they specialize in Harley repair. They used the Harley font. Harley made them take the sign down.

I wouldn't suggest using any copyrighted logo as a source of income, but especially not Harley, they're like the mafia.

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How do you go about getting permission? I sent an email to MAZDA USA and they replied with a number, left a message at that number about getting permission to cut vinyl and have yet to receive a call back...

Call again or send a letter . From reading .. it is easy to get permission from some companies.. not available on some companies & some require a franchise type fee with percentages of profit , quality control , minimum monthly fees etc

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Im going to the swap meet tomorrow as a shopper (I need some socks)

I think I will have a little fun and scare the crap out of the vinyl guy there.

Nothing he has is original.

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Call again or send a letter . From reading .. it is easy to get permission from some companies.. not available on some companies & some require a franchise type fee with percentages of profit , quality control , minimum monthly fees etc

Roger where do you get that idea?......If they are easy to get, they probably will not sell.....

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I have read several posts here that have stated all the person did was ask & got permission ... can't be easier than that . Whether they sell is a whole different issue , no matter if legal permission is gained or not , right ?

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Im going to the swap meet tomorrow as a shopper (I need some socks)

I think I will have a little fun and scare the crap out of the vinyl guy there.

Nothing he has is original.

Get video. I want to watch.

Jay

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That would be hilarious ... especially if a commercial size video camera was used .

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Im going to the swap meet tomorrow as a shopper (I need some socks)

I think I will have a little fun and scare the crap out of the vinyl guy there.

Nothing he has is original.

lol, could be what happened here. the "harley guy" was really the guy selling decals at the other end of the flea market, lmao. you never know. good way to thin out the competition.

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Turn them in!.....Both Harley and Disney pay rewards.....

I called Disney one time and they do not give rewards, they wont even tell you if they are going to tack action. If you have a link that says they will pay then I would love to see it.

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Turn them in!.....Both Harley and Disney pay rewards.....

Really I would love to know how you came up with that. I have a friend that works in the legal dept for Harley and never heard of that??

There could be a lot of rich people try typing in Harley on ebay and see how many you get and how many do you think have permission...

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Geez Roxy ;) , I gave a much better answer to your question than you did for the question you were asked ( & I stated I had read it ) . I think somebody took your comment back to me bad as somebody gave you a negative , but i didn't take it that way . Guess your sig line stays true :D ..... It is ok to be wrong sometimes .. I myself even was wrong 1 time ... 1 time I thought I was wrong ... turns out i wasn't !!! :D:D:D

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I was asked to do the browns helmet at one point and after reading about someone cutting the Duke University logo and gettings sued in the neighborhood of half a million I told the guy it would cost 750k for a helmet to go on the hood of his truck. He thought I was nuts so I politely explained to him that if I got busted that's probably what it would cost if not more for that one vinyl

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it is definitely going on all over. about 2x a year for as long as i can remember, the farmers market down the road would get hit and all the stands with the chinamen selling their $5 "champion" sweatshirts and $10 "gucci" and "louie vatton" purses get everything confiscated. then theyre back there the next week starting over again. even the local burger place has a case filled with $10 "oakley" sunglasses, and other obvious forgeries. they were selling dvds for a while too, till the guy making them got arrested.

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heres an idea, why dont the owners start selling just those tags with the holograms on them for the ppl who want to sell merch, and they still get their licensing cut. (after the merch was approved for sale, if the owner so chooses) charge whatever they want for their per-item fee for the tag. seems like a much easier way to sort through the licensing

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It sems quality control is a big factor . Anything with their name on it is a reflection of the company . They spent alot of money to just let any small business to decide what represents their company . Plus probably not as profitable .

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