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I received a
letter the other day from FFR customers Peter and Heidi S. of
Cincinnati, OH. Enclosed was a check sent to us
unsolicited to help pay for legal costs relating to the ongoing
Shelby lawsuit. The donation and kind words of
support mean a lot to all of us here at Factory Five Racing.
Through the past year, we have received literally hundreds of
e-mails, phone calls, and letters of encouragement and support
from customers.
It has been a
while since I have updated you guys on the status of this
lawsuit. While there isn't much to report, I figured I
should at least let you know where we are today. |
Factory Five President Dave Smith with the
FFR Type 65 Coupe |
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Background: In December of 2008, Shelby filed a
Federal lawsuit against Factory Five Racing, Inc. alleging
"trade-dress" violations of the Shape of the "Daytona Coupe",
marketed by FFR for almost 10 years as the Type 65 Coupe. This
was a strange lawsuit from the very beginning since, as part of
a multi-million dollar legal battle waged in 2000 over the word
COBRA and the shapes of the FFR designs, we had previously
reached an agreement in 2002 whereby Shelby "forever dismissed
with prejudice" all claims relative to the trade dress of FFR
kits (including specifically, but not limited to the Type 65
Coupe!!!). Early in 2009, we were successful in having the
lawsuit transferred to Boston Federal Court (it was originally
filed in California).
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In October of 2009, there was a hearing on our
simple request for a motion to dismiss. Our motion was
based on the fact that Shelby, as part of the resolution of the
2000 lawsuit, had agreed not to sue over FFR kit shapes.
The hearing was short and to the point and the argument made by
Shelby's lawyers as to why they sued us when they agreed not to
was laughable.
As of today, we are still awaiting a ruling on
that motion to dismiss and anticipate a favorable conclusion
soon.
While we were sued for the shape of the Factory
Five Type 65 Coupe, two other parties unrelated to Factory Five,
were sued over the word "Cobra".
LK Motorsports (a builder of Factory Five kits
and small one man operation in Southern California) was sued by
Shelby over the word "Cobra" (a picture of a Ford Cobra valve
cover was on their website!) and they have since gone out of
business.
FFCobra, a customer based (and completely
separate entity from Factory Five Racing) online discussion
forum was also sued by Shelby over the word "Cobra". From
our limited knowledge, it appears that the customer website has
agreed to not use the word "Cobra".
For the record, Factory Five Racing, Inc. wants
NOTHING to do with Shelby, the word COBRA, nor do we want to be
associated in any way with Carroll Shelby.
On a personal note, I believe that this lawsuit
was timed by Shelby to coincide with a downturn in the economy,
in the hopes that the costs of litigation (which his team excels
at making very expensive) would harm Factory Five Racing
unrelated to the merits of the case. We are fortunate to
be able to defend against this lawsuit and have never asked you,
our customers, for any financial support. The concerns and
support that you have given us has been appreciated
tremendously.
Dave Smith
President
COBRA is a registered trademark of Ford Motor Company and Factory
Five Racing does not describe its products using this word. |
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