'Survivor' Term Comes Under Fire

[70 copo]

Yipes, I guess no old cars on the TV show "Survivor" Right


Next someone will get a patent on the words "restored supercar".....

Suing is one thing winning is something else. I am sure that they have a claim to the exact term "Survivor" as applied to a Corvette via the BG definition of a "survivor" as patiented.

Safe to say that currently they are in dissagreement thus here comes the lawyers correct? It will be neat to see this one play out.

Example: Say I place an ad for my car for sale as a
"survivor" of long storage, untouched, all original with low miles and all original parts. Does BG have a leg to stand on here? To me it depends "how" the term "survivor" is used. Ill bet that a judge in court will not understand this and will throw the case out, or rule that they do own the term but only as applied to Corvettes sold for a premium as due to "Survivor certification" as patented and awarded by BG.

This would be consistant with any reasonable misrepresentation of a trademark by anyone for monitary gain -ie use of the "Gold Spinner" certification/name to falsely sell a car for more money. No I did not read the story, but trying to trademark a word in the english language and then to try to restrict its use beyond a simple trademark infringement looks like a clear violation of the 1st Ammendment (freedom of speech) of these great United States. Give me a ring side seat!!

[toner]

Call them "a survived" car from now on.

[Charley Lillard]

In defense of Dana Mecum. I have met him and he seems like a nice guy to me. It might be something as simple as competing with NCRS. Bloomington has their survivor class and they have been doing it so long it has brought meaning to the term and if I owned the company I might trademark the term also and apparently the patent office agreed with them. Going after Hemmings seems kinda silly but I'm sure there is more to this story. Does Mecum own Bloomington or just do the auctions as part of it ?

[Zedder]

While I think it's a shame that it has come to this, I will be glad to see the term "survivor" used more in line with what Bloomingtom meant when they coined the term with respect to Corvettes. Personally, I'm sick of hearing about "Survivor" cars that have nothing more than "most" of their original paint - otherwise they have been totally "fluffed", "detailed" and "restored". I love truly unrestored cars and think the term "survivor" should be used only for those that are truly "unrestored"

[DaJudge]

I totally agree with you Zedder

[JoeG]

Using the phrase Bloomington Survivor or Bloomington Gold Survivor should be enough for them --since their organization is used in the phrase, which would be easily recognizable-- If I Ran an auction --JOE SMOE'S SURVIVOR CARS---I think people would be able to see the difference------------------------Or change their name to Survivor Gold-----Then give them their patent-----------

[Steve Shauger]

The name of our survivor certification program for the Camaro is Vintage Camaro rather than survivor because of the bloomington groups objection to anyone else using the term survivor.I believe they trademarked the term.

Vintage Camaro was established to provide the appropriate status, recognition and appreciation of the unrestored Camaro.

Most cars that are 30 plus years old show their age and have been restored to some level. Very few are true time capsules. However at this years Camaro Nationals @ Carlisle, Vintage Camaro was treated to several of the best survivor status cars, such as a Red 1969 RS/SSL78 with 12k miles, White 1969RS/SS L48 with 14 k miles to name a few. One of the reasons most original cars are fluffed and buffed in the past was because no one recognized their status as valuable benchmark cars. Instead they were judged against restored cars, so owners fluffed and buffed them to compete(In the above statement I am referring to the Camaro arena). We offer full certifications and partial certification for cars that may have been restored in one or two specific areas.

And yes Mark the term is overly used.


Steve Shauger
Vintage Camaro

[ssl78]

Charlie my understandig is Dana Mecum Bought The whole Bloomington Gold Name. He is able to do whatever he wants with it. That is why it was moved to St Charles IL.

[moparts]

Can't use the word survivor in describing your car......what's next take the word God out of the pledge? (wait they are trying to do that)...bad example....take our guns away? (wait they are trying to do that too)....another bad example.....anyway you get my point.....so who is going to be the survivor moderator on this site?

[Belair62]

Maybe if you don't capitalize the word it's not patented !!