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VW Had US Customs Seize and Destroy a JDM Van for Looking Like the Classic Bus

40 points by josephcsible 4y ago

sieabahlpark 4y ago
[dead]
mdmglr 4y ago
> retro-bodied Subaru had that big VW badge on the front, CBP contacted Volkswagen of America and asked whether the van was authorized to wear the branding, as is procedure. VW said it wasn't and that the company considered it a fake version of one of its products. All they had to do was take off the VW logo and ship it separately to go undetected by customs.
- mike_d 4y ago
  Unless you are a big importer and have employees overseas (or are willing to fly back and forth), the best you can do is ask the seller to remove the badging. Sellers usually don't want to take on the risk of modifying the vehicle.
- justinclift 4y ago
  VW certainly come across like arseholes: Barg chose a middle ground and petitioned VW and customs for a compromise. He asked to be given access to the van to remove the VW badge, alter its paint, restore its Subaru branding, and sign a nondisclosure agreement. VW didn’t budge. :(
- gbil 4y ago
  I wonder how the CBP will react when (if) Apple releases their car and they have cars going through CBP for whatever reason with the Apple stickers, the ones included in every Apple product, on it /sarcasm
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  If they bought an authorized production of the VW logo (e.g. from a wrecker) I think they could mount it on whatever they want under First Sale Doctrine, no? I don’t don’t get the part about “authorized to wear”. Just matters if the logo itself was an authorized production. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine IANAL.
  - jsiepkes 4y ago
    I highly doubt that. Otherwise I could obtain used and worn Nike shirts, cut out the logo and sew them to on to new shirts and sell them.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - lesuorac 4y ago
      Completely unsure of what to lookup to figure this out but as long as you're not claiming it's a Nike shirt it seems reasonable to me. People do this all the time with quilts out of tshirts/sweatshirts. Seems fairly reasonable to me that you could re-assemble a shirt using previous shirts so long as you only make the claim that you're the manufactorer. if you install windows onto a macbook you don't have to scratch out the apple logo. More specific to this actual case, people have fake badges on their cars all the time. I'm not a car person so I can't spot them but just because somebody's SUV has a performance package badge doesn't mean it has anything else that was part of the performance package. --- Re-badging seems to be a better term to search on but it only brings up random forums saying its legal but generally without any citation.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
        > as long as you're not claiming it's a Nike shirt it seems reasonable to me The fact that your shirt has a Nike logo means that you're claiming it's a Nike shirt. If you were to buy a shirt with an offensive statement on it, then get a Nike swoosh from a different shirt and sew it on, would you be surprised that Nike's upset? > People do this all the time with quilts Does Nike make quilts? There's your answer!
Maursault 4y ago
Appears to be more pictures here[1], including of the interior. No telling how long it'll be up before VW issues a take down notice so that we idiot Americans won't get confused. [1] https://www.primoclassicsllc.com/vehicles/370/1996-subaru-sambar-micro-van https://www.primoclassicsllc.com/vehicles/370/1996-subaru-sa...
- wahern 4y ago
  These look like different vans. The colors and internal trim are different. Maybe the faux wood trim was easily removed, and the different colors a digital artifact. But the steering wheels are clearly physically different. Compare https://www.thedrive.com/uploads/2023/04/04/photo_2021-08-07_19-32-47.jpg https://www.thedrive.com/uploads/2023/04/04/photo_2021-08-07... and https://cdn.dealeraccelerate.com/primo/1/455/26271/1920x1440/1996-subaru-sambar-micro-van https://cdn.dealeraccelerate.com/primo/1/455/26271/1920x1440... There are many other differences, which for a van that apparently cost at most $9k seems unlikely to be accounted for as modifications. That said, $9k to buy and import a van from Japan? That's amazing.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    This is random and vacuous, but I wish we could just move Japan and Taiwan to a location off the coast of Northern California before China notices.
eurasiantiger 4y ago
Ah, the corporate hellhole is showing its fangs.
HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
Why is anyone surprised by this? It's just copyright protection.
pleb_nz 4y ago
What a great result for and use of the world resources. We do need to rethink what we're wasting before we act.
rekabis 4y ago
This is where I feel copyright should slam face-first into a brick wall: if the company does not make a micro bus freely available to purchase, they cannot object to anyone else imitating it. A company’s copyright of a product should irrevocably end when they are no longer providing that product for sale. And not just a token amount, but in sufficient quantities such that any backlog of customers does not exceed 365 days of waiting to have their order fulfilled.

40 points by josephcsible 4y ago

[dead]

> retro-bodied Subaru had that big VW badge on the front, CBP contacted Volkswagen of America and asked whether the van was authorized to wear the branding, as is procedure. VW said it wasn't and that the company considered it a fake version of one of its products. All they had to do was take off the VW logo and ship it separately to go undetected by customs.

mike_d 4y ago
Unless you are a big importer and have employees overseas (or are willing to fly back and forth), the best you can do is ask the seller to remove the badging. Sellers usually don't want to take on the risk of modifying the vehicle.
justinclift 4y ago
VW certainly come across like arseholes: Barg chose a middle ground and petitioned VW and customs for a compromise. He asked to be given access to the van to remove the VW badge, alter its paint, restore its Subaru branding, and sign a nondisclosure agreement. VW didn’t budge. :(
gbil 4y ago
I wonder how the CBP will react when (if) Apple releases their car and they have cars going through CBP for whatever reason with the Apple stickers, the ones included in every Apple product, on it /sarcasm
Scoundreller 4y ago
If they bought an authorized production of the VW logo (e.g. from a wrecker) I think they could mount it on whatever they want under First Sale Doctrine, no? I don’t don’t get the part about “authorized to wear”. Just matters if the logo itself was an authorized production. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine IANAL.
- jsiepkes 4y ago
  I highly doubt that. Otherwise I could obtain used and worn Nike shirts, cut out the logo and sew them to on to new shirts and sell them.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - lesuorac 4y ago
    Completely unsure of what to lookup to figure this out but as long as you're not claiming it's a Nike shirt it seems reasonable to me. People do this all the time with quilts out of tshirts/sweatshirts. Seems fairly reasonable to me that you could re-assemble a shirt using previous shirts so long as you only make the claim that you're the manufactorer. if you install windows onto a macbook you don't have to scratch out the apple logo. More specific to this actual case, people have fake badges on their cars all the time. I'm not a car person so I can't spot them but just because somebody's SUV has a performance package badge doesn't mean it has anything else that was part of the performance package. --- Re-badging seems to be a better term to search on but it only brings up random forums saying its legal but generally without any citation.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
      > as long as you're not claiming it's a Nike shirt it seems reasonable to me The fact that your shirt has a Nike logo means that you're claiming it's a Nike shirt. If you were to buy a shirt with an offensive statement on it, then get a Nike swoosh from a different shirt and sew it on, would you be surprised that Nike's upset? > People do this all the time with quilts Does Nike make quilts? There's your answer!

Maursault 4y ago

Appears to be more pictures here[1], including of the interior. No telling how long it'll be up before VW issues a take down notice so that we idiot Americans won't get confused. [1] https://www.primoclassicsllc.com/vehicles/370/1996-subaru-sambar-micro-van https://www.primoclassicsllc.com/vehicles/370/1996-subaru-sa...

wahern 4y ago
These look like different vans. The colors and internal trim are different. Maybe the faux wood trim was easily removed, and the different colors a digital artifact. But the steering wheels are clearly physically different. Compare https://www.thedrive.com/uploads/2023/04/04/photo_2021-08-07_19-32-47.jpg https://www.thedrive.com/uploads/2023/04/04/photo_2021-08-07... and https://cdn.dealeraccelerate.com/primo/1/455/26271/1920x1440/1996-subaru-sambar-micro-van https://cdn.dealeraccelerate.com/primo/1/455/26271/1920x1440... There are many other differences, which for a van that apparently cost at most $9k seems unlikely to be accounted for as modifications. That said, $9k to buy and import a van from Japan? That's amazing.
- Maursault 4y ago
  This is random and vacuous, but I wish we could just move Japan and Taiwan to a location off the coast of Northern California before China notices.

eurasiantiger 4y ago

Ah, the corporate hellhole is showing its fangs.

HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago

Why is anyone surprised by this? It's just copyright protection.

pleb_nz 4y ago

What a great result for and use of the world resources. We do need to rethink what we're wasting before we act.

rekabis 4y ago

This is where I feel copyright should slam face-first into a brick wall: if the company does not make a micro bus freely available to purchase, they cannot object to anyone else imitating it. A company’s copyright of a product should irrevocably end when they are no longer providing that product for sale. And not just a token amount, but in sufficient quantities such that any backlog of customers does not exceed 365 days of waiting to have their order fulfilled.