Russ, obviously any decent licensing attorney is not going to construct an agreement with a gaping hole such as leaving the licensor liable monetarily, I get that part. You make some good points as well, and maybe certain points of judgment are too harsh, a reputation has a long memory, but consider this....
While class action law suits are being formed and submitted, while an entire website is set up dedicated to the existing and
continuing problems, while page upon page of customer complaints are being logged, while photos of low end components and work are being posted, all of this over at least a two year period, no action was taken regarding the licensing of the Shelby name. It remained intact.
Surley there was an awareness of these problems, yet a conscious "look the other way" continued and so did the collecting of licensing fees, all the while a lot of people are getting screwed in the process.
I have licensed one my company's names and affiliated patents before and when I got wind of the poor quality product being marketed I canceled the agreement. I sacrificed a healthy amount of licensing fee's, but I didn't want my reputation or company's name associated with the product being introduced.
Maybe I am addressing a point of business philosophy here as much as anything else, this is not a new scenario, similar issues about the same company have been hammered around in here before.
With that I am gonna let this one go, I got my opinion out there which is all I really wanted to do.
