Kind of glad that Harley Davidson owns and protects the Harley name. Otherwise, Honda or 'insert Japanese bike manufactuer name here' might market a motorcycle named "Harley Farley" or some other nonsense name to capitalize on the Harley Davidson name.

 

How about Shmarley Shmaivdson?

 

I don't think we have anything to worry about here; like others have said, it has to do with using the name 'Harley.' I also remember seeing a picture in Hog Tales or The Enthusiast with Willie G standing amongst a pretty sizable group of folks from a V-Rod forum.

 

I think the malfunction with all of this was more that the mentioned site was selling things like bells. You could assume that Harley would get bent about this forum were it selling something. Since it is not... No harm done.

The worry is that someone would go to their site, see the bells, and buy them thinking they were "authorized" by Harley. Any reasonably minded person knows that they are not but there is always someone in the crowd that would want to turn around and sue Harley because that bell caused his bike to leak or something equally as stupid.

You may laugh at that... but that sorta stupid stuff happens ALL the time.

 

what Daveervin said
Harley must respond or they open up a huge can of worms . This is true of any corporation (including the one I work for). We have no choice but to shut people down that use our name , it's not that we ar bullies , law just doesn't have a gray area so we have no choice.

 

Well that harley guys sure has a lot of trademarks himself.
Harely Hahn

 

The word "Harley" is not, in and of itself owned by the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. It's the use of the word "Harley" that matters. In the case of the web site mentioned, the word "Harley" was used in reference not just to motorcycles in general, but to Harley-Davidson motorcycles in particular. Based on actual copyright and trademark laws, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company must defend use through efforts such as the "cease and desist" style letter above.

Seriously, guys, I don't even get why someone would consider this corporate bullying. This is a company defending a trademark, as required. It seems more than reasonable to me, particularly based on the very logical requirement that a company defend their intellectual property.

I would expect, for instance, it's why we all sign on to hdforums and not harleydavidsonforums.

 

Good question.Starbucks seems to think so,I would guess Harley is attempting to take the same stance

 

Seems to me that trademarking a family name for a particular business should NOT be allowed in the first place. There are other family members with the name after all, maybe even higher ancestry (older) than those trademarking the name. Certainly, I consider it an infringment on the rights of other family members to simply use their name in a family business.

Harley-Davidson should not be allowed to call Harley a trademark, or Davidson a trademark. The only trademark should be Harley-Davidson.

I would just love to see someone with the resources win this fight against an over zealous corporation.

For all of you defending the corporation, you are just helping to drive nails into free enterprise.

 

The picture is actually in the Enthusiast.

If one thinks straight...the MotorCompany was defending its right towards the trademark of "harley" word, if you analyze carefully they should also go after V-Rod forum (hence, v-rod is a MoCo trademark and the forum isn't associated with the company...and I doubt they asked for permission to use the name) and also they could come toward us...as the use of "H" and "D" together meaning Harley Davidson is also a trademark.

This reminds me of the Harley Davidson vs HOG Farm lawsuit..where they were claiming that the word HOG was a trademark and being used without permission.

what puzzles me is why they go after some groups and leave others alone?