NH and JD file suit

PitbullMidwest · Jan 20, 2003

If you don't visit the CTOA message board you might not have seen this.

New Holland is suing Futian and JD is suing Jinma over Trade Dress (same charge as Kubota against Kioti). There is alot of info if you take the time to follow the links provided by Mike Stewart.

Here's a link to the discussion: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://worldcrossing.com/WebX?128@60.7W4RedSCWOE.1039090@.1ddbc391>CTOA</A>

Anonymous Poster · Jan 20, 2003

I guess that is one way to compete. Cut down the competition in the courts if you can't do it in the free market.

JohnS · Jan 20, 2003

The JD suit might have impacts to implement manufactures. I believe I saw some pictures of Green First Choice implements on this site. Since the JD suit also mentions the pending suit on MTD for their Yardman series of tractors (yellow hood, green body), it will probably set a precidence.

Woodbeef · Jan 22, 2003

I can see NH point about the Futain tractors. They do look like a joint-venture between the two companies made in China.

As for JD well as the sun is starting to quickly set on the solid,stable,still......bs mantra and Deere is grasping at straws to try and plug the whole in the only market that they can still sell anything in volume in! These color infringements are really good comedy if you sit back and look at them for what they are worth,which is hilarity in the best sense of the word. Some over priced law firms will make millions off of this farce of the US justice system!!

PitbullMidwest · Jan 22, 2003

Woodbeef,

On the John Deere Trade Dress issue, why didn't they sue Oliver for having green tractors? Oliver completed head to head with Deere for years but the marketplace finally decided. It seems that the "victim society" mentality has finally reached corporate America.

I do agree with you that the Futian looks like a joint-venture and I think NH has a good case.

Anonymous Poster · Jan 22, 2003

I wonder why Mercedes does not sue the american and other car makers for copying their look. Actually many of the newer auto's look alike. I do not consider this a valid issue. Tv's, VCR's refridgerators, cooking stoves, and a lot of stuff looks alike.

I still believe it is just another way to "compete", if their product does not stand out enough on it's own merits to successfully compete in the market place.

MikeStuart · Jan 22, 2003

New Holland's case depends on whether or not a resonable person would confuse the Futian tractor with a New Holland. They state that a less-than-honest dealer may imply that the Futian is identical to a NH in some way because 7 out of 10 randomly selected people would think the Futian is a NH unless they saw them side-by-side.

Trademarks don't have to be registered in order to be enforced so NH is hoping that will be enough to stomp out Futian imports.

JD's complaint is interesting in that they name some Chinese tractor distributor/dealers and some non-Chinese tractor companies in North America and Europe.

The Chinese tractor factories named and the Chinese tractor dealers that are named sell or have photos of green and yellow tractors that a non-tractor person would assume could be a John Deere. One of the companies named had a rep that claimed their Chinese tractor is a "Chinese John Deere with a Chinese Yanmar engine". For this part, JD is doing the same thing as NH in trying to protect their trade dress.

The other part of JD's complaint (the non-Chinese) has to do with companies that sell and export/import JD products. This is where a precedent has been set previously in the area of "grey-market" Kubotas.

As far as NH's and JD's complaints go, these are just complaints at this point. An investigation will follow. Perhaps during the investigations and certainly after the investigations, lawsuits are going to start popping up. That's when it will get interesting.

markie61 · Jan 22, 2003

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

I wonder why Mercedes does not sue the american and other car makers for copying their look.

<hr></blockquote>

Actually, they DO defend their look.

For instance, Jeep is now owned by Daimler/Chrysler (ie, Mercedes-Benz). Through the years, Jeep and its subsequent owners have been VERY aggressive about defending the vertical barred grill as a trademark on SUV's. Their newest target is the H2 by Hummer.

As a casual consumer, I would have assumed they were made by Jeep since the military Humvee is the successor to the miliary GP vehicle. Even as a quasi-educated consumer, I know military Humvees are (or were) made my a company called AM General and might extrapolate (falsely) that it was part of now-defunct AMC, which owned Jeep before Daimler/Chrysler. I'm a car nut, so I know that the H2 is mostly GM pickup under its skin - no relation to a Jeep.

Unless I had found all these wonderful TBN people to educate myself, I might have bought the (FALSE) idea that a green tractor was always a Deere or Kioti made tractors for Kubota or a Ford is now a Long or an IH is now a Mahindra.... Defending trademarks and patents is I believe important enough to warrant a complaint. There is a whole legal subsystem is there to ensure a fair hearing to both sides.

Whoa - !! I gotta get off this soapbox - I'm getting dizzy up here/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif....

Mark

Woodbeef · Jan 22, 2003

Hey Pitbull,

The Oliver colors were different enough than the Deere colors,so I guess they were not worried about it back then. Also at that time Deere was on its way to being #1 in North America,today they are slipping on that position. They must do all they can to try and hang on to every market that they can. With the under 45hp being the only market this side of the pond that looks promising,I think their actions become very clear.