'Survivor' Term Comes Under Fire

[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 !!

[firstgenaddict]

Let's just call it Survivour with the accent mark.
Or Supervivor for the survivor supercar.
I believe that like I said before they have waited too long to defend their trademark. Because Bloomington did not go after everyone (did they go after anyone?) in the past and defend it, I do not believe that they have a case. I am not a lawyer but did study some trademark and patent law.
If they would have coined a new word or phrase such as "BG survivor" or "Gold Survivor" or Bloomington Survivor I could see the infringment but come on.
Just write the ad as
"69 Yenko 15,000 miles all original paint and interior has survived untouched."
Then it seems as though they really have no case.

[njsteve]

How about "rovivrus" (survivor spelled backwards). but seriously, many of the moparphiles out there remember the mid-80s when Chrysler slammed down on anyone using the term "mopar" anywhere in anything. At the time most people thought "mopar" was a slang term but it was actually the original parts division name (like GM's Delco) of Chrysler "MOtor PARts." They went way overboard in their legal attacks and the hobby struck back furiously with publicized boycots of new vehicles and some very innovative other methods, including t-shirts depicting Chrylser's Gen Counsel with a giant screwdriver, screwing a roadrunner to the wall. Due to the backlash of thier own customer base, they eventually backed off of their zero tolerence policy due to all of the bad publicity. When it comes to trademarks, a company has to vigorously protect the mark or it becomes part of the public domain, like "Jeep" and "Kleenex" and they lose their rights to it.

[mrrec]

Words cannot be patented. However, they can be protected and "owned" for a specific use by obtaining a trademark. The trademark has to be used in interstate commerce. Therefore you cannot trademark a term just for kicks.

There are approximately 50 different trademarks registered for "survivor". They apply for a variety of items including a Timex watch, tub caulk, etc.

Bloomington's trademark for Survivor is registered as
"Authenticating certain automobiles".

This is a real can of worms as this is very broad. What certain automobiles? This broad swipe should never have been allowed (but the patent attorney did good - that's their goal: broad!)

It is unlikely we, as individuals, will be served for using "survivor" in an internet ad as a description of a car. However, the Hemmings notice is probably the tip of the iceburg and I'm sure all of the major ad venues will get a letter.

I don't think it is a big deal. Misuse of these words has been a pet peeve of mine for years. "Original" has been misused for years as has "survivor". And yes, describing your original (never painted, detailed, etc.) car as "survived" is AOK.

By the way, for those of us who really know and appreciate what a truly original car is, you might be surprised at the very few cars that really are untouched originals and have SURVIVED.

Dave

[BUIZILLA]

I am going to use the word *survivor*, anytime I want to. You see, we are ALL survivors, or we wouldn't be here today... going after Hemmings was a chicken sh!t move. Even more crappy, was Hemmings immediate bow down. Hemmings transcribes the ad entry for their customer, they don't make up those ad's, and terminology that people send in. It's no different than me placing an ad in my local newspaper. For Hemmings to reduce the ad language, is plainly censorship to me. BG will have to go after EVERY media source on the planet, including newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, yada-yada that uses the word. The for sale ad's do NOT reflect an association or allegiance that competes with BG, it states what the seller believes to be true. There is NO law that says you can't state what you believe to be true. If you say that your car rivals a BG survivor status, then you might have a problem. But, if I advertise my used weed-eater as a *survivor* in the bargain trader, is that illegal use of the term? I don't think so...
JH

[Jeff H]

Time to go out and patent "matching numbers". Then I can charge anyone that wants to use the term. This really is getting ridiculous in this country. Barry Bonds has his name protected so ESPN can't use it, the "Super Bowl" is protected so all the ads call it the "Big Game". Donald Trump and "you're fired".

[Pantera]

I have been setting here reading all the posts so far about this and I am furious.

I was not aware that their copyrite of the term "Bloomington Gold Survivor" entitled them to the exclusive right to the generic term "Survivor" when applied to any collector car.
That term has been used freely in the hobby almost as long as muscle cars have been collected.

A "Survivor Car" should be a phrase that can be used by anyone that wants to use it. Screw Bloomington if they sue someone over the use of this I hope everybody in the "Collector car hobby" all sign up to testify against them. That term was coined long ago. It was first used more by those in the NCRS and Bloomington was just one stop on their show circut. I will be one that will be the first to sign up against them.

I also hope that everyone in the hobby will boycott the bastards if they think they own the entire english language.
I for one will boycott them when the day that my my Motion vettes and especially my "day 2 Survior" 60,000 mi '65 Vette is finally restored and I start to show it. If they want to control the hobby like that I predict that it could backfire on them.

I think they are oversteping themselves. Since 1990 they have not vigorsly defended their copyrite of the term so they should be limited to only the exclusive use of "Bloomington Survivor" or "Bloomington Gold Survivor" period. They are oversteping their right to the term "Surivor car" and they could be in danger of loosing it.


In fact I predict that they would loose in a court battle over the use of the term. I hate to see the auction company backing down as that just gives Mechams lawyers encouragment to go after everyone in the industry. I hope that this forum will not be the ones that have to suffer because of this.

Dammm I am really pissed.... It is a good thing that I don't have a dog or I might take out my anger over this on him.

(climing down off soapbox)

Thanks all,
Pantera

Perhaps this forum should copyrite the term "day 2 survivor" before they try to stop us from using it too.