In the article, it sounded like he was trying to allow the individual clubs
to remain affiliated through the $1 arrangement, so maybe your SoCal branch
will choose to become directly affiliated.
I have heard that Shelby in the past few years has become very aggressive in
enforcing his Trademark rights. At the time, everybody in China was making
"Shelby GT350/500" emblems for cheap and he wasn't getting a cut. Now that
there has been some enforcement, It is amazing if you see how much the trunk
letters for "Mustang" cost vs the same Trunk letters "Shelby" cost. So I
would guess that some of those licensing agreements are not $1 when you
start selling things and making money with his name on it.
I have also seen a few cars on Ebay get relisted, because someone from the
Shelby camp is watching and clones that don't have licensing will be asked
to have their ads removed.
But I also looked at what I believed was the Carroll Shelby personal site,
and if you want to get your GT350 dash autographed by him, no problem, send
it in along with a donation to one of the two big charities that he supports
and he will autograph it for you, and I think everyone knows that he has
probably autographed about twice as many dashes as were ever originally
produced. In comparison, I think if you wanted some autographed sports
memorabilia from a former sports star, that most of those dollars aren't
charity dollars but go to support the aging athlete instead. So he seems
more generous than many that have a marketable name.
So if I were to make a guess, he may just be trying to keep his trademark
from going into the public domain from lack of enforcement (didn't the
minilight brand go into public domain from lack of enforcement?). And if I
were to guess, he may leave some or all of his trademarks in trust to one of
those charities when he dies, so he probably needs to make an effort to make
sure his trademarks aren't in public domain when he dies.
While many of his other efforts may be about shoring up his trademark while
he is still around, I would assume that the SAAC battle is probably more
over money than anything though. I would assume that he hasn't been around
this long because he is a bad business man. And if someone else is making
money off his name, I am sure he wants his cut too.
Steve
> Stephen,
>
> What a quandary for us Tiger owners. The SoCal branch of the
> organization accepts Tiger automobiles and owners as full members. They
> used to have great concourse events at Woodley Park, Encino CA (until
> the city wanted horrendous insurance for the events). Used to see Jay
> Leno there at every concourse.
>
> Quandary. What to do with the membership I THOUGHT was accredited by
> Shelby, and non-profit, like all good clubs.
>
> Steve
>
> ___
> Steve Laifman
> Editor - TigersUnited.com
>
>
>
> Stephen Waybright wrote:
>
>>I'm now much less sympathetic to the situation SAAC is in.
>>
>>http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071208/clsa003.html?.v=27
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