[Joe's Garage]

Originally Posted by REAL 1

Shelby American has the rights under agreement with Ford. The "ruling" as you refer to didn't deal with the trade mark issue. That was a different decision. The ruling only a small part of which was posted ruled in essence there was no distinctiveness in shape that was preserved or related back to Shelby since others began copying the shape and did so for such a long time it was not in the public domain and not worthy of protection any longer. Had Shelby acted years ago when the replica industry started he would have won the trade dress issue.

Originally Posted by LMH

Thanks!
Larry

Larry, do not get sucked into Evan's misleading spin, little of what he says actually culminates into a factual interpretation of Shelby or his cars.

Case in point, although Evan has summarized the trade dress issue reasonably well, he closes with a totally ridiculous assumption -

Had Shelby acted years ago when the replica industry started he would have won the trade dress issue.

The truth is, AC Cars Ltd. were the creators of the 289 and 427 bodies, not Shelby. If AC Cars Ltd. got wind that Shelby was bringing a law suit against replica builders on the shape of the 427 (back then), a simple FAX from across the pond would have squashed Shelby and his bumbling legal team who thought they had sole rights to the cobra shape. Who knows what AC Cars Ltd. would have done back then, but when Shelby brought the case to court some 40 years later, they probably knew it was a no-win and just let the court dispense with Shelby and his frivolous suit accordingly.