ClassicVolvo.com was during a period in year 2000 - 2002 involved in a domain name struggle with Ford Motor Company. The struggle, that took place in US court rooms and on the Internet, took a lot of energy from both parties. It also took the focus away from Volvo cars and Volvo automotive which was sad. The outcome was a bit of a standstill in combination with a small victory for ClassicVolvo.com and a BIG victory for EFF (read Eric Grimm´s statement here).
The struggle now belongs to the past. The following pages shall mostly be seen as an example of how one can use the Internet to rise opinions and how a small, one-man company successfully can fight, using the Internet as the main tool, with one of the largest corporations in the world.
I hold no grudge against Ford Motor Company (I am even on the outlook for a Fiesta for my wife...) and hopefully they also see me and ClassicVolvo.com for what we really are; assets in the Volvo world.

November 2004

Hans Rekestad at ClassicVolvo.com


ClassicVolvo.com
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The Right To A Domain / Ford vs. ClassicVolvo.com
ROUND 7
Read Press Clips: Local Daily, Expressen, Wall Street Journal web, WSJ text,
Much more to come as soon as there is time for scanner work...
Round 7 of the domain cyber war between Ford Motor Company and ClassicVolvo.com is hereby online. It is mid-March 2001, ten months since Ford Motor Company started the conflict. This text is also the backbone of my speech at the IMS 2001 e-marketing conference in Las Vegas, April 10-12. I will talk about how to handle a domain name conflict.
If you have the energy, please look back through the other six rounds and check out the past. There is also a fast summary at the bottom of this page.
FoMoCo and its puppet, Volvo Sweden, shows absolutely no imagination at all in the presently ongoing domain war with ClassicVolvo.com. FoMoCo just bully-heads forward in an old-fashioned, traditional way. Like an ostrich, with its head in the sand, FoMoCo just repeats their mantra "He tried to sell the domain, he tried to sell the domain, he tried to sell ... " Its officials are being totally silenced by the on going legal process so it seems that the only hope for justice and some common sense lies with the American judge.
The chance that he or she will rule against the FoMoCo trademark might be small. Why complicate matters on the behalf of a small Swedish entrepreneur?
The whole matter is one big paradox. Take a look at ClassicVolvo.com and you see a web site that promotes older Volvos to 110%. This has been the case since 1996. The revenues from the work with this web site is, for me the founder, probably less than 1$ US per hour.
The value for the Volvo trademark must, if the present problems had not occurred, be considered rather high. To set up a brand-promoting web site with 500 visitors a day, that reaches right into the core of the target group, costs a small fortune. The cost for FoMoCo has not been one cent!
AB Volvo and Ford Motor Company have nothing similar going on the web. These companies treat the classic Volvo heritage in a very ignorant way. AB Volvo even has a head of press that clearly states: " I do not like veteran cars!".
With a situation like this, most companies should have cherished a site like ClassicVolvo.com like pennies from heaven. When I needed capital to expand (I still do!) FoMoCo should have sent me a check instead of a court order.
The only realistic way of business acting would be to establish contact and cooperation.
If you know anything at all about business on the Internet this is the natural way.
So why has it gone in a complete other direction? Is the worlds fourth biggest company just plain stupid or is something else going on...?
This conflict is not really about trademarks, Volvos, money or domains.
This conflict is about power on the Internet and how you execute it.
Looked upon as an isolated case, it must be obvious for almost everyone that Ford trying to close down ClassicVolvo.com is bad for business, Ford´s and ClassicVolvo.com´s. Resources get tied up with lawyers and silly paperwork. Ford gets a lot of bad will and ClassicVolvo.com is forced out of track. We loose focus on what we really shall do - promote automobile business.
So what is there to win? Why do Ford behave in this seemingly silly fashion?
On a larger Internet-scale, above the ClassicVolvo.com horizon, there might be another dimension. The real value for FoMoCo in this conflict (a value that might highly supersede the little promotion site asset value) might be to use the situation as a training ground for executing their power on the web. Is this what FoMoCo does? Being basically an enterprise from the old economy, Ford uses old executing techniques. Following this line of thought makes ClassicVolvo.com an excellent shooting target for FoMoCo´s lawyers to practice on. An excellent opponent that knows how to regroup and use the forces in the big chess game on the web. What more could you want than an, relatively harmless, opponent that tries to practice all the tricks of the new www-trade.
For a company like FoMoCo it is a must to try to execute as much power as possible on and over the Internet, the next three decades number one sales channel. It does not matter what one think about the rights and wrongs about such acting. It is a necessity because every other competitor in the industrialized world will try to take as big a bite as ever possible what ever means they need to use. Not engaging in this competition would be the same as to give up your enterprise completely
It is a f-n shame, for old Volvos and for me, that FoMoCo sets out to learn how to treat a new media using its old, stagnant tools. Much better would be if the practicing target, ClassicVolvo.com, can teach FoMoCo a better, more subtle, more efficient way to handle the e-business. This is unlikely to happen since an old-fashioned, hierarchic company like FoMoCo takes a long time to change. It will probably cost a few more practicing targets like ClassicVolvo.com before change is achieved. Younger, more high tech, companies have already started to learn. The mobile phone giant Nokia is one.
It might very well be the way that FoMoCo has learned its lesson and wants to back down and let ClassicVolvo.com have its go since it is a web site that really should be looked upon as a valuable Ford asset. But backing down will, most likely, not happen. Except for the value of a practicing target, Ford has also invested too much prestige in this battle to back down. Backing down would also require one powerful person to start the initiative. It is unlikely that this powerful person should risk to tarnish his or her career with this, some what, sordid conflict. It would also involve a bit of risk since I, the entrepreneur Hans Rekestad at ClassicVolvo.com, still might be just a cyber pirate and a swindler after all. So why bother? I do not think this powerful person exists.
To close down ClassicVolvo.com would also make an excellent, classic(!), precedent. It will be a very usable tool in continuing to execute an old-fashioned style of power.
And, of course, a tool for the taking down of other, maybe seriously nasty, cyber pirates that clearly exists.

The transparent defense. My speech at the e-marketing conference in Las Vegas will be about how to handle a domain name conflict (Welcome to listen!). The way I do handle this domain name conflict might not be the best of ways but for me it has been the only way possible. Since the conflict started with a summons from Ford, the only possible way for me to communicate directly with Ford, has been through lawyers. This very Americanized way of communication seems invented to efficiently put a silencer on most people. I think this way of money-forced communication is a sign of a maybe declining American culture and I will not take part in it. Even if I wanted to, my revenues would not allow me. There might have existed other ways of reaching communication but lack of time, and maybe imagination, have prevented me from finding them.
So I did and do handle it the web way, the transparent way. FoMoCo do, of course, prefer to silently handle this whole matter in a closed court room where the expelling of ClassicVolvo.com can take place in a fast and easy manner. Since 99,8% of the public opinion seems to be on my side, the less attraction the better, for Ford. For me it is of course the opposite. Total transparency - everything out in the open, this beautiful Internet phenomena is my major tool. My best shot is, definitely, to via public opinion be able to install some common sense in this conflict. One drawback from this way of acting is that the Ford-peoples lips might get sealed even more by the fact that their words can be published on the Internet the next very minute. This fact might have been negative for some communication. Via the Internet I reach out and execute pressure on FoMoCo to try to make things a bit more enlightened.
And I also make noise. The Wall Street Journal journalist that came by last October told me:
"The only way you can succeed, which you probably will not..., is to make noise. Ford can wait a long, long time and once things have calmed down, they will hit you and close you down. Make noise!".
So I make noise by executing my power-tools on the Internet. I use my html-chisel to sculpture out my message. I use e-mail and bill boards to round up support. I reach out to other media of all kind.

I do all this because I like the web, I like media and I like old Volvos.
And I do it with a very strong belief that I am doing the right thing.
And there is no one, except a bunch of lawyers from FoMoCo, that tells me anything else.
So how do we solve this conflict? Here are two parties that both sincerely think they are right. A big traditional company that defends its trademark in a common manner and insists that it is all about just the very trademark rights. And small enthusiast mechanic that insists that there is a lot more ingredients and that there are a lot of gray zones.
It is obvious that the last ten months conflict handling has not been very successful. We stand as far away from each other as possible. This problem will not find a good solution in the court rooms, not for any of us, what ever the outcome.
The only way to handle this conflict is for the parties to communicate with each other, like one human to another.
I am totally open to any civilized contact from Ford or Volvo and I will discuss this matter at great length in trying to find a solution.
On my coming up trip to the USA, I am willing to come to the Ford Head Quarters in Michigan if anyone there is willing to engage in some kind of discussion or negotiation with the aim to settle this affair with some dignity.
Just say when!
 
 
THE PAST
The story of ClassicVolvo.com and of Hans Rekestad, its founder
1958. Six years of age, I ride home in the back seat of my proud fathers first automobile, a Volvo 444 1947.
1963. I buy my first own Volvo, eleven years old. It is a 1951 model 444. The car has no brakes. Thrilling! I take it apart and sell it for scrap metal.
1970-. After several years on motorbikes (Swedish Husqvarnas) I get my automobile drivers license and begin a two year long, very violent, rally and racing career. Racing is expensive and I start up my first repair shop and begin to trade in cars and parts.
After regaining my senses I quit racing, still with most of my health left, in 1972. I use Volvos for traveling around most of Europe in the 70´ties (I, amongst other things, tried to cross through Albania in a 1957 445 Estate and were stopped by Kalaschnikovs) and then for helping building an ordinary Swedish family life in the 80´ties and early 90´ties. Repairing and trading Volvos is all the time one of the backbones of my business enterprise.
1988. The Personal Computer comes into my life in order to help with book keeping. A small revolution.
1995. The World Wide Web comes into my life. A big revolution.
1996. In September I register and launch www.classicvolvo.com on the web. In those budding days of the WWW no-one did think that "classicvolvo" was a part of the Volvo trademark. Everyone just grabbed what was avaliable. "Volvo" was a trademark, "classicvolvo" something entirely diffrent. The big companies were often slow and name nappers made money by selling MacDonalds.com to MacDonalds and AltaVista.com to AltaVista and so on.
I never thought that ClassicVolvo.com could inflict problems with the Volvo trademark. For me it was just a very good name, easy to remember, that described what I did on the web. Four years later it is a highly valued Volvo trademark.
A natural question mark comes up: What will it be like in 2004? Can one use "Volvo" in the index title? In the key words?
Using the Volvo logo with out permission will most certainly bring you to court in 2004. But will using the word "Volvo" on the starter page (any page... ?) also attract fierce attorneys? ClassicVovlo.com... ClassicOvlov.com...
1997. I start a two-year business relation ship with the, then solely AB Volvo owned, company Bilia AB. I sell new Volvo spare parts, on commission, on my web site. I also sell used spare parts and classic Volvo cars world wide.
And, of course, constantly ponder about how to use this new phenomena, the www.
1999/2000. The dot.com surf is at its height and I try to expand my digital Volvo-concept in order to grip the whole classic Volvo market on the web. I need bigger funds! I go to meetings with venture capitalists, take part in discussion groups and put the word around in every possible way. During this time I put the domain out for sale on various places that deal in domain names. This must surely be a good place to attract financially strong investors! One of these sites is www.greatdomains.com.
2000, May. I receive a summons from Ford Motor Company, a 40-page letter in English. They accuse me of being a cyber pirate, diluting the Volvo trade mark and acting in bad faith because I had offered my domain for sale! At first I think it is a mistake. Have they looked at my web site? It is just one big, heavily promotive, commercial for their recently bought trademark. And to no cost at all for them!
I feel very unjustly treated and get very upset discovering that FoMoCo is serious. I register www.classicvolvo.nu to keep my web channel open and start publishing my defense on the web. I get a lot of support from my visitors. Not one sentence from FoMoCo after the first paper work. Not one sentence from FoMoCo even until today, spring 2001.
2000, October. The story gets five minutes on prime time news television in Sweden. My e-mail inbox bursts and the telephone almost melts down by all the calls. Visitors at the site six-foldes over night. Media from all over the world starts writing and talking about the case.
Volvo Sweden says "FoMoCo is using ballistic missiles to shout sparrows". I have brief contacts with the Head of Press at Volvo Sweden (a man that states that "I do not like veteran cars!"). My overall feeling, that proves out to be right, is that he just wants to stall things, to keep me from going out in to the media world.
2000, November. Ford goes to court in Michigan and is granted an "in rem jurisdiction". This seems to mean that they can proceed with out having to bother to meet me in person. A kind of "cyber war"?
Volvo enthusiasts in England and Holland registers www.classicvolvo.net and www.classicvolvo.co.uk and let them point towards my site in order to show support and to protest against Ford.
The EFF takes on my defense.
2000, December. I write a five page business proposal to the Head of Volvo Sweden and suggest that we take advantage of the present situation. I offer my Volvo knowledge and my web knowledge. With the present media focus we could launch a classic Volvo web portal that would leave everyone behind for a long time.
My absolute main focus is, and has always been, to put out the digital Volvo message, as powerful as ever possible, on the web. My own personal benefits come secondary.
I get absolutely no response from Volvo which is funny since they have absolutely nothing resembling what I suggest and what I do with ClassicVolvo.com.
Are these guys not at all interested in their heritage?!
Volvo Sweden´s Head of Press gives me a book for Christmas about the merger with FoMoCo. Written by a favorable journalist as opposed to the one that strongly support my case, Håkan Mattson at Expressen. Mattson is also very critical of the Ford-merger.
2001, January. Ford continues their pursuit and constantly repeats their mantra: "he tried to sell the domain". Judge Cleland shall decide, upon amongst other things, if I have acted "in bad faith". My case is handled by The Electronic Frontier Foundation . The outcome is not yet ready (middle March).
Together with my "spare parts partner", CVI-Automotive, I start looking for bigger premises to expand ClassicVolvo.com in the Stockholm area. The FoVoMoCo-hassle is a burden but it shall not be allowed to stop e-progress. It is obvious that the people in power at FoMoCo do not know what they are talking about.
I get invited to talk at the IMS 2001 e-marketing conference about e-marketing strategy.
2001, January. I write directly to the Head of Fords´ luxury car division, Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle in London and to Mister Ford himself, Mr. Jack Nasser in Dearborne, Michigan. I suggest that we stop this energy wasting web battle and get down to car business. No answer.
Classic Volvo. com