Cease and desist from Ford Motor Co.

[shelbygt]

I have received a cease and desist letter from Ford Motor Company's attorneys. My husband and I took photos of cars at local classic car shows and made clocks out of those images. We sold them only through Ebay for about 2 years. Some of the clocks have shots of the car's fender emblem on the clock. Ford is claiming the shape of the car, or any photo of the car, as well as the shots of the emblems are in violation.
We sold approx. 160 different "Ford" car clocks on Ebay over 2 years and made about $10.00 on each one. We made a total of 1600.00 in 2 years from these clocks. Ford is asking for $5000.00 in damages or 25% of total sales(whichever is the GREATER amount), a list of all the people we sent the clocks to and all the Ford clocks we sold in the past 5 years. I sent a letter back stating I was unaware I was infringing on any copyrights or trade marks and I will no longer sell or produce any more "Ford" clocks.

I just received another "email" back for them saying I have 8 days to comply to their request in the previous letter. I am unsure as to what I should do... 25% of my total sales is 400.00 ...a far cry from 5000.00. Ford is currently sending similar letters to all kinds of Ford related parts suppliers and general websites using their "names" in the URL and such and it seems we are caught up in this web.
Here is a link to some of the stuff Ford is currently doing via the same lawyers.
http://www.boss302.com/board/viewthr...7&pagenumber=1

I can't figure out how they are asking $10,000 from a multi-million dollar company and $5,000 from a few ebay sales.
This is the company they are asking only $10,000 from.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.d...ONEY/605100302

Thanks for any help or suggestions,
Val

 

[edzo1121]

well from what ive learned in the past 24 hours about Cease and Desist (basically people need to lighten up in your case and mine) a Cease and Desist is only a demand from a company to stop production or distribution of the item (such as your clocks) i think trying to gain compensation through this isnt in the right context. However i am certainly not an expert, and my battle is far less significant than yours. But i hope you have better luck with them in the future.

 

[shelbygt]

Thanks

Yes, I hope it doesn't end up being a battle.... with them trying to collect what amounts to peanuts to a HUGE company as Ford, but the lawyers I am sure will get a pecentage of anything they can collect from little people like us, who fear being forced into court by an endlessly funded attorney team.