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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: Lawsuits

5/9/2003 2:03 AM
A Colman	Re: Lawsuits Have any of the big amp companies been involved in any lawsuits,either them suing or them being sued? Aharon

5/15/2003 2:26 PM
A Colman	Re:I guess not... I thought since one of the primary worries here seems to be that somewhere down the line if you sell amps you are going to be sued,maybe the biggies after selling amps for decades by the tonne they would've gotten their asses dragged to court. I wonder what the possibilities of being sued are for the average Joe?. Aharon

5/15/2003 6:51 PM
zachary vex	there's no way to know for sure. i took out business liability insurance long ago (as well as a large umbrella policy for my house), and the last time someone threatened to sue me, i don't think it would have helped. i discovered an amp maker using a logo extremely similar to mine, and when the company using that logo refused to stop, i contacted a couple of my dealers that were considering becoming dealers for the other company and asked them what i should do... perhaps drop the dealerships if they took on this other line that was infringing on my logo? as fate would have it, both of them actually told the company that if the company used that logo they couldn't carry their amp line... well, that resulted in a call from the president of the amp company threatening me with a charge of "tortious interference." turns out that the president of the company was a lawyer. so i argue with him for awhile, saying "look, you're telling me that by dropping dealerships, which is my right, since i have no contracts with these people, you can sue me for interfering with YOUR company?" and he admitted that it really had a lot to do with the REASONS. so i explain that this is about the THEFT of my identity by his company, and that my plan was to get a temporary injunction against his company, halting production and sales of anything with my logo on it (i was assured by a lawyer i could do this based on the evidence) and then contact all of my dealers at once and inform them that if they bought any products from his company with my logo on them they'd lose my dealership, which would negate the "tortious interference" crap, at least for the time the injunction was in place. at which point, he backed down, and we came up with a plan for him to replace his logos over a period of time. point being, you never know WHY someone will want to sue you, because it almost always comes from left field. and another thing to learn from that is that if you want someone to sue you, do something that involves their business which might irritate them. in this case, i was able to rattle the guy's cage hard enough to get him to pay attention to me, and then finagle an agreement out of him, but it felt pretty hairy for awhile, because i don't have any real law background. don't ask or speculate the name of the company, please. that's not the point of this story, and i have had enough trouble already. 8^)

5/15/2003 6:51 PM

zachary vex

there's no way to know for sure. i took out business liability insurance long ago (as well as a large umbrella policy for my house), and the last time someone threatened to sue me, i don't think it would have helped. i discovered an amp maker using a logo extremely similar to mine, and when the company using that logo refused to stop, i contacted a couple of my dealers that were considering becoming dealers for the other company and asked them what i should do... perhaps drop the dealerships if they took on this other line that was infringing on my logo? as fate would have it, both of them actually told the company that if the company used that logo they couldn't carry their amp line... well, that resulted in a call from the president of the amp company threatening me with a charge of "tortious interference." turns out that the president of the company was a lawyer. so i argue with him for awhile, saying "look, you're telling me that by dropping dealerships, which is my right, since i have no contracts with these people, you can sue me for interfering with YOUR company?" and he admitted that it really had a lot to do with the REASONS. so i explain that this is about the THEFT of my identity by his company, and that my plan was to get a temporary injunction against his company, halting production and sales of anything with my logo on it (i was assured by a lawyer i could do this based on the evidence) and then contact all of my dealers at once and inform them that if they bought any products from his company with my logo on them they'd lose my dealership, which would negate the "tortious interference" crap, at least for the time the injunction was in place. at which point, he backed down, and we came up with a plan for him to replace his logos over a period of time.

point being, you never know WHY someone will want to sue you, because it almost always comes from left field. and another thing to learn from that is that if you want someone to sue you, do something that involves their business which might irritate them. in this case, i was able to rattle the guy's cage hard enough to get him to pay attention to me, and then finagle an agreement out of him, but it felt pretty hairy for awhile, because i don't have any real law background.

don't ask or speculate the name of the company, please. that's not the point of this story, and i have had enough trouble already. 8^)

5/15/2003 7:20 PM
Dr Krumpet	Some people will sue you if you rattle their cage. In a few cases that I'm aware of, it was an ego thing rather than a legitimate request to be compensated for real damages. Mess with me and I'll step on you like a bug. And why? Because my dick is bigger than yours -- that's why. I dislike lawyers. I also dislike people who sue others for the darndest trivial reasons.

5/15/2003 10:17 PM
Mark Hammer	Lawsuits are often launched because: a) someone perceived threat when there was none and mounted an offenseive before venturing to find out what the conflict actually was over b) somebody is on the losing end and the only way to make it right again seems to be to sue someone Lawyers live in a realm of perceived entitlement, and while no doubt there are some cynical and manipulative ones as in any profession, it eventually becomes as difficult for many of them to NOT thnk in terms of lawsuits as it is for doctors to NOT think of a prescription as a starting point for treatment (or guitar players to NOT think of "slow blues" whenever they get together to jam).

5/15/2003 10:17 PM

Mark Hammer

Lawsuits are often launched because:

a) someone perceived threat when there was none and mounted an offenseive before venturing to find out what the conflict actually was over

b) somebody is on the losing end and the only way to make it right again seems to be to sue someone

Lawyers live in a realm of perceived entitlement, and while no doubt there are some cynical and manipulative ones as in any profession, it eventually becomes as difficult for many of them to NOT thnk in terms of lawsuits as it is for doctors to NOT think of a prescription as a starting point for treatment (or guitar players to NOT think of "slow blues" whenever they get together to jam).

5/16/2003 7:01 AM
zachary vex	or pedalmakers to NOT think of "univibes and fuzz faces" whenever they work on something new... 8^)

5/18/2003 6:07 PM
Zmex	?!?! A joke? LPB and a FF!!! Not thinking of those????? Couldn't even get past having FUZZ as part of the name. Your ego is about the only thing original.

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