Mercedes cracking down on replica's.....

[Tim M]

See this article - Mercedes Replica Destroyed

I'm wondering how come Shelby hasn't done the same with the Cobra? Has he already tried? Is this setting a precedent for other companies and replicas?

 

[33ratride]

I don't think my cobra would look good in a trash dumpster.

 

[STL Mark]

Not a lawyer - but I think this has to do with the original designer is also the owner (DaimlerBenz) and they copyrighted the design from the beginning as a work of art and renewed the copyright on a regular basis. Since the original designer of our cars is NOT Shelby, but AC, the rights would fall to them if they made an initial copyright and renewed it on a regular basis. Basically, you cannot take the design work of another, claim it as your own, and then copyright it. Without diving into all of the Shelby legal wranglings of the past 50 years - he is technically a builder, and did not actually design the initial work - initial being the keyword - from the beginning, from the ground up.

Just my .02

 

[PaulProe]

Don't miss the details

Many of the things that came out of the Shelby/ff5 lawsuits was Shelby's in-attention to details. Didn't take the time to file copyrights, trademarks, didn't register, etc. And the courts said you can't go back 40 years and get a do-over.

If my memory serves me correctly, he gave the use of "Cobra" to Ford and neither of them registered it. Bottom line, it now belongs to the general public. He did register "Shelby American" so you have to pay a price to use that name/logo.

If he'd done it right, we may have been in the same pickle as the 300SL owner. Or the price of a replica would be substantially higher than what it is.

 

[TBULL]

I for one am sorry to hear about this. That car was on my list of cars that would be cool to build, but I guess not now.