DOMAIN STRUGGLE
Classic Volvo .com - The Internet Volvo Water Hole
The Right To A Domain / Ford vs. ClassicVolvo.com
ROUND 4
Ladies, Gents and Volvonians,

time for another cyber round in this cyber fight with Ford Motor Company.
We are in the middle of October 2000 and ClassicVolvo.com is still waiting for Ford Motor Company to come out of the ring corner. So far, FoMoCo has only taken part in the match once: delivering the first blow in the first round. Since then total passivity has ruled on FoMoCo´s side, from our point of view. If anything happens behind the lines, we do not know. Maybe there is a lot of action going on? Maybe Ford Motor Company is gearing up for a fierce offensive? Or maybe has Ford Motor Company already walked away? Hopefully this round will put some light on this topic.
Let us sum up the past so you do not have to browse around:
In October 1996 I registered the Internet domain classicvolvo.com. I had then, for several years, managed a little company that dealt in classic Volvo cars, parts and repairs. I handled, and handle, only models from the 50, 60 and 70´ties. Volvos have been my life long hobby, passion and livelihood. I bought my first Volvo as an eleven year old Swedish country boy!
Finding the Internet in the mid 90´ties was finding another passion in my life. I did register the domain, ftp:d up my first web pages (I surfed with Mosaic!) and did start with this new, promising media. In those days the big companies were battling with name nappers for their "nominal" names, e.g. MacDonalds had to buy their domain from somebody that was faster at the Internic gate. AltaVista and many other companies were also facing long court battles or a quick, expensive settlement to get their trademarks. Classicvolvo.com was in those days not even considered to be close to a trademark. For my purpose it was perfect, though.
The Internet struck me immediately as the perfect tool to use to gather all the classic Volvo owners around the globe. It gave me the means to get every one together, to make all enthusiasts communicate and also, hopefully, a world wide market for anything Volvoish. It could be both fun and prosperous!
Time rolled on and I did learn a lot of new things. I did spend a lot of time on trying to understand the web, trying to understand how to handle e-mail (with out getting drowned by it!), writing endless lines of html code and learning all the other aspects of working the web. Lots of different concepts came and went but my idea of a Volvo portal, a web site for all the classic Volvo enthusiasts in the world, were all the time standing strong.
In January 2000, when the dotcomwave were really up and going, I did invest some energy into drawing more capital to my Volvo portal idea. With a little bit more resources I would have been able to move on faster towards realizing my idea. An idea that I strongly believed in then and, still, strongly believe in today.
I wrote a paper to use in contact with venture capitalists to raise funds (study it at http://www.classicvolvo.com/risk - unfortunately only in Swedish)
I did drop e-mail here and there, went to some meetings, discussion groups and various web sites. I browsed the web in search for funds in the best way I could think of. During this period I did commit the act that attracted Ford Motor Company's lawyers, I offered my domain for sale at www.greatdomains.com, a web site where you deal in domains. According to Ford Motor Company, this did put me into the existence of the Cyber Pirate!
My ambition with this act was to come into contact with capitalists that would be interested in helping to build on my Volvo portal. With my present knowledge I regret, of course, this act and I wish to have it undone (especially since it did create absolutely no financial contacts). I still think, though, that it was basically a good idea and I am still today willing to sell my domain, completely (almost....) or partly if this gives me bigger opportunities to create my Volvo portal. I think that few investors would chip in anything of substance without getting a piece of the core cake. I would not!
At the very moment, investing into ClassicVolvo.com, must be considered a bit risky,though. This project needs the blessing from Ford Motor Company to really go ahead.......

In the beginning of May 2000, a fat letter arrived from Dickinson Wright PLLC, Counsellors at law with Ford Motor Company. It was hard to understand the legal English language but it looked like they wanted me to come to court in Detroit, close down my domain and pay $100 000 (+expenses?) in damages. The letter created a small shock and some days of fear but after the initial trembling, my gut-fueled, Swedish anger started to raise and I decided that this was definitely NOT a treatment that I would accept! I created these pages, that you are visiting right now, got a lot of support from my discussion groups and via e-mail. In fear of that FoMoCo would have the power to rapidly close down my domain and thereby cutting of my channel to the world, I registered classicvolvo.nu (pointing at the same pages as .com) and started to spread the info around. This would extend my connection to the world and this was, as I saw it, my only possibility of reaching justice since I did not have a penny to spend on lawyers.
Then the months rolled on and not much happened. I did not hear a single sentence from either Ford or Volvo. Not a letter, an e-mail or telephone call. At times I did some halfhearted acts to contact Ford but my e-mail's were never answered and I was to proud (or stubborn...) to spend money on telephone calls to the USA. I did send out my newsletters regularly and at times I included info about this battle. My address book includes e-mail addresses in both the Ford and Volvo hierarchy so the news must have reached them. At times there was a bit of contact with other domain owners, also sued by Ford but never any contact at all with Ford Motor Company.
I found this a bit spooky and did not know at all what to think. And I still don´t!
In the beginning of October, five months after the initial Detroit letter, the situation changed radically. A news reporter at the Swedish news show "Aktuellt", Daniel Furman, did surf the web for Volvo information and came across these pages. He made a five minute documentary that was shown on prime time news television, on the 4th of Oct. It worked as a turbo on the whole situation. Support and ideas came in in an at a rate that almost overpowered my systems. News paper reporters lined up at my door. Everything from the local daily (Länstidningen), to national newspapers (Expressen), and computer mags showed up. Even Wall Street Journal, (here for text only-Netscape!) wanted an interview! Finally also AB Volvo´s head of media contacts, Mr Ingmar Hesslefors, rang up and said some carefully selected, positive (!) words. He promised to be in touch again. I am still waiting.
I am still, mid October, surfing on this media wave. Hopefully something good will come out of it.

End of summary
The World Wide Web will alter the way of life for the bigger part of earth´s population. The change will happen fast and with great impact. It is easy to make mistakes if you are trying to keep up with the web evolution. If you are not trying, you definitely make a mistake!
The Internet offers enormous possibilities for both small parties, like classicvolvo.com, and large ones, like Ford Motor Company. Maybe the most exquisite quality that the world wide web offers is the extremely enhanced possibility to communicate. Communication, in its ever widening meaning, will be one of the pillars of foundation for the future and future business activities. If you do not, as an entrepreneur, adjust to this future you will have difficulties. If you remain unadjusted, there is a great danger that you will not be able to keep progress going, that you will be left behind and that your business venture will be damaged. You have everything to loose if you do not engage in the art of how to communicate!
Ford Motor Company has, in this specific case with classicvolvo.com, acted as an old-fashioned, traditional, marked-by-hierarchy, last century company that is not keeping up with modern evolution. A company that can not communicate.
FoMoCo has, hopefully by mistake, attacked a true ally (probably with out first even looking at the web site) in a completely incommunicative, idiotic way. To send a Swede a massive, legal, 40-page letter, in the English language, with a 100 000 dollar claim and after this not communicate one sentence during the next five months is completely absurd and extremely unprofessional. One would think that a company like FoMoCo had higher ambitions.
Ford Motor Company has, in this specific case, with its stupid, incommunicative and aggressive acts, turned me and my web site into one of its enemies. An enemy that probably already has created lost man-hours and lost revenues.
Ford Motor Company's intention was to close down ClassicVolvo.com but as a result of its incompetent, incommunicative actions so far, the opposite has been achieved. Ford´s actions has doubled the traffic to my web site and greatly enlarged my client data base. As a bonus, me and my company have also been presented with a media campaign worth millions. (Thank you, Ford Motor Company!).
With its inconsiderable acts Ford has worsened its cards even more. By rounding up around a hundred domain owners and branding them all with the same label they have put serious allys, like classicvolvo.com, in the same bucket as real baddies (like fordsucksandeveryoneknowsit.com). How will Detroit deal with this matter? By slaughtering us all?
The super paradox in this whole matter is that there has never, ever, (before these pages!) been anything negative about Volvo or Ford on the classicvolvo.com web site. Classic Car enthusiast sites contains almost never any criticism. We just like it! To one hundred percent! ClassicVolvo.com has just been one large Volvo commercial!
If Ford Motor Company had spent a fraction of the so far spent energy on investigating me and my web site/domain and a tiny bit more on communication, they could probably easily have been able to plot out the future. As a midget entrepreneur in a mega car world one is easily satisfied. A bit of contact with the Mother Company, some interesting information at times, a bit of advertising material and maybe the odd lunch keeps most small entrepreneurs more than happy. I am no exception.
If Ford had come forth in a civilized manner, and presented a decent explanation, God knows if they not even also could have had the domain! I am basically a peaceful person, not really a cyber warrior.
With very small means Ford could have made us both pull in the same direction. We could have increased our popularity, our sales and our revenues.
Ford has now achieved the direct opposite.
An excellent example of somebody that does it right is the Danish multinational toy company LEGO. They even have a page with guidelines for web designers. And they SUPPORT their allies, amongst them the International Lego Users Network.
Thanks to Tore Eriksson for this tip!

This conflict has no real winners. It is true that ClassicVolvo.com has got a lot of attention in the media but so far only a lot of non paid hours has been the result. Since I have heard almost zero from both AB Volvo and Ford Motor Company I can only assume that this cyber fight is far from over. I know that if Ford really decides to crush ClassicVolvo.com, what ever the cost, I have very little hope to survive.
I also have no illusions about the cause of the present uproar in Swedish media and amongst Swedes in general. It is not my person or my little web site that is making Swedish people offering donations "to pay for lawyers", Swedish newspapers to line up at my door step and complete strangers offering, over the phone, to "come around with an iron pipe" and help me to beat up Ford people.
The real reason for all this present commotion is that Ford Motor Company in Detroit, by attacking ClassicVolvo.com, is attacking a part of the Swedish backbone, the Swedish soul. Volvo IS an ingredient in the veins of Swedish people. Volvo IS an ingredient in my veins. It will take a long time to change this fact even for a company of Ford´s caliber. The question is if it is ever possible.
It is a big mistake by Detroit not to cherish this Swedish, "mystical" quality in AB Volvo and in the Volvo car. This quality is one of the major assets in the Volvo company. A quality that makes the Volvo a special car for special people. A car that makes special sales. FoMoCo should keep, nurse and feed this quality, a quality that would cost a mega fortune to build into an automobile trademark. In a world where mainstreaming of car production is constantly increasing, and also is an absolute financial necessity, it will be well worth it!

To guard your trademark is, of course, a necessity for every company. And, of course, we have to control domain registration. The old saying from the Internet childhood "Information wants to be free!" can not be the ruler of modern business life. And, of course, if any one tries to steal from me, my work, my company, my assets, I will try to stop it.
Old-fashioned thinking tends to focus this cyber conflict around trademark infringement. Old-fashioned acting would like to keep it there. Old-fashioned conceiving would probably also like to extend the trademark concept many steps further and take these stupid arguments about word combinations into many court rooms. Lawyers will earn massive amounts on it.
Fortunately this cause is dead. We are in the year 2000. We have the Internet and the new communications economy. We have millions of word combinations (domains) whirling all over, almost all registered in good faith for good purposes. We have thousands of small communicative company units that with the fantastic, new possibility to communicate can grow to great proportions and be of good use to humanity.
It is a pity that a company like FoMoCo does not make much better use of its enormous resources. A company like FoMoCo could spend its wealth on being one of the very first communication bearers into this new paradigm era. They could pave the way for the rest of us! FoMoCo should sack half of their lawyers and hire in people that will help them enter the 21st century instead.
Producing automobiles today is a risky and costly venture. In the future it will be even more costly. A big car manufacturer today can NOT afford to miss out on the communication age benefits. Then the risk is severe that when tomorrow comes there will remain only a small car manufacturer. Or none at all.
So, Dear Ford Motor Company, climb out of the dusky court rooms, dig out your surfboard and join up on the ever growing communications wave!
You will like it!
And please get of my back....
Thanks for listening!
Written by Hans Rekestad. October 18th 2000