'Survivor' Term Comes Under Fire

[Bill Pritchard]

Did anyone read the editorial in the newest issue of “Hemmings Muscle Machines” magazine? It seems the ‘Bloomington Gold’ Corvette folks (aka Mecum Auctions) are whining about other peoples use of the term ‘Survivor’ as it applies to collector automobiles. In short, Hemmings received a threatening letter from Mecum’s law firm and was forced to go thru all their sale ads post haste and exclude the word ‘Survivor’ from any of them. While I agree that ‘Survivor’ is a much abused and overused term, Mecum is taking it too far the other way. I suppose collector car websites such as this one can be expecting notification in the near future

[firstgenaddict]

The term "Survivor" has become a generic term for an unrestored / original car. It seems as though they have waited a little too long to defend their brand. If it was trademarked they would have had to rigorously defend their brand/trademark or else they lose it. Styrofoam was a brand/trademark for the generic expanded polystyrene. It was lost because the company did not defend it when others used in the generic.

[Bill Pritchard]

[ QUOTE ]
It seems as though they have waited a little too long to defend their brand. If it was trademarked they would have had to rigorously defend their brand/trademark or else they lose it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Better read the editorial. Bloomington Gold registered the term "Survivor" with the United States Patent Office in 1990. Their law firm is taking the position that anyone using this term on any collector car is infringing on BG's property

[Mr70]

Who's next,CBS & Mark Burnett?

[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-----------