Of course each part has the right to say its side of the story in any combat and that's exactly what Ford did in response to the news they were suing an enthusiast site devoted to the Ford Ranger for having violated the automaker's trademarks. According to The Ranger Station (the Web site that was sued by Ford), the Blue Oval was asking for $5,000 and rights to the Web site's domain name.
Apparently, things are not exactly like this because as automaker claims Ford enthusiasts are extremely important to them. But since Ford cares a lot about its brand integrity, they are totally responsible to their licensees. Although it hasn't been mentioned, it seems that The Ranger Station was selling counterfeit Ford-brand merchandise on the site and this was more than enough to get on the Blue Oval's nerves. They just couldn't allow such a tragedy to happen, so best thing they could do was to ask their attorney to do the threats. In response to Ford's punitive measure, the counterfeit goods were removed from the Web site.
All's well that ends well, especially when Ford's official response sounds like this: In short, we are not asking for $5,000 and we would like you to keep the domain name. We simply encourage TheRangerStation.com to contact Ford to request a license to continue using the domain name."
As a matter of fact, Ford's honest expectations would be requesting a license to continue using the domain name. Same goes for those who produce and sell branded merchandise using Ford's trademarks. Fair enough...
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