Haze

Hey all -

I ordered some custom car mats from the California Car Cover catalogue the other day. I asked them to make them balck and then include the "RX-8" logo on the mat to match my lightning yellow.

I get a call today from the company (and let me tell you that these guys have great customer service, and I mean that, they were really nice and easy to talk to on the phone), but they tell me that they cannot include the RX 8 logo, the letters rx 8, or the word Mazda on my mats. Mazda refuses to license any of their trademarks or copyrights in the US to this company to make mats. Now, I like the factory made stuff OK, but IMHO their floor mats are too thin and kind of cheesy, so I wanted some that were a little more substantial. I guess that Mazda wants me to choose between the cool look of their logo, and the quality of a decently made mat. Well, I went with the better made mat, but the proprietary nature of Mazda's corporate ethos is starting to drag me down.

Anybody else have an experience like this either in the US or in other countries? I am sort of interested how far this restrictive mentality goes.

Nubo

Maybe you can find a way to emboss the mats yourself

MEGAREDS

The logos are all owned by Mazda and style of the logos are also all owned by Mazda, as is the RX-8 styling, inside and out.

It's universally true that a corporation is not going to let someone else use their intellectual property without approving the use in a license agreement. In fact, failure to enforce a trademark exposes it to being lost to the public domain. That's the reason why officially its always Kleenex-brand "facial tissue" or Jello-O-brand "gelatin" or Band-Aid brand "plastic bandages." If the company started calling it Jello and allowing others to call it Jello, anybody could make Jello. Trademark law is also why MikeRoweSoft.Com is being sued by Bill Gates (to Mike Rowe's chagrin), and why it's likely your favorite college has a "Registered Trademark" icon next to the school's seal or name on every T-shirt sold.

Anybody dumb enough to produce "RX-8" floor mats without Mazda's consent is subject to a very quick and easy restraining order and having the products they've placed the trademark on confiscated and (likely) destroyed. I'm not sure, but I think it possible under U.S. law for Mazda's to get legal fees as well.

Don't get me started about the Copyright law (as opposed to the what seems reasonable-in-relation Trademark law)... just don't go around singing Happy Birthday in a restaurant.

WHealy

Isn't it as simnple as making x number of adjustments to the logo. I don't know the number, but doesn't that make it no longer covered under copywrite law?


For instance ...

mamccubbin

I used to work for a corporate marketing department and had to deal with requests to use our logos. As Megareds pointed out, companies have to be very careful about protecting their copyrights. I know it sounds silly to think they won't license the logo to other companies, but it's not that simple. From my experience, Mazda is likely to have a huge number of requests for logo usage. This means they are likely to say no to all but the largest posible projects.

My advice would be to see if you can find a local embroidery shop that will do it for you. If you look hard enough, you might find someone that will do it on the side.

Haze

Ahh, I agree with everything that you guys are saying about exposing a trademark to abandonment if you knowingly permit people to violate your marks without enforcing them. It is very much a part of trademark law, but the assumption that it is difficult to license the mark for a corporation is not exactly correct. This company readily puts Cadillac, Vette, PT Cruiser Symbols, and actually the logos of most car companies on their mats because they have a limited license from the companies to do that, for I am sure a nominal fee, because those companies believe that any other company which expands their brand image is a benefit to their automotive business.

I believe that Mazda is making a choice to make their brand proprietary so that if I want a mat with "RX 8" on it, I will have to go to Mazda to get it, and pay them for their mat, which I don't otherwise like. I think that this is a corporate policy, and it is a little different than other companies.

I wish that I had thought of taking the mats to a local embroidery shop. There are a bunch near me who I am sure would gladly do the work for cash and no reciept, however, I just decided to go with a yellow 8. They can't mark that. 6 maybe on the 6, but they can't mark 8 for the 8 since they have never used it in their materials. So, a nice yellow 8 is going on both mats, and I kind of dig the vertical infiniti look of it too. I think that it's cool.

Thanks for the feedback.