Volo Auto Museum Announces That Volvo of North America (Goliath) Sues Volo Auto Museum (David) for Internet Domain Name Infringement

VOLO, Ill., April 24 -- The following press release is being issued by Volo Auto Museum:

Volo, Illinois is a rural community approximately 50 miles northwest of Chicago. Volo's mayor is a local pig farmer and the 200 or so folks living in Volo are a close-knit group of citizens who enjoy rural life in America.

A commercial oasis in this quiet community is Volo Auto Museum, opened by the Grams family some 40 years ago. Over the last two-score years Volo has grown in the antique and classic auto museum industry, to the point where the museum attracts both national and international visitors.

Out of NOWHERE, Volvo of North America (now owned by Ford Motor Company), has brought a complaint against Volo Auto Museum before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, asserting that Volvo is somehow losing potential customers because in the cyberspace universe there may be either a realistic or fanciful confusion between potential Volvo vehicle purchasers, and those individuals who might be interested in antique, classic or muscle cars which Volo Museum has been displaying and selling for the last 40-years (long before imported Volvo vehicles were introduced into the profitable American marketplace).

For starters, it is unlikely that the individuals responsible for WIPO have so much as a clue regarding the difference between a classic or antique or muscle vehicle and the very fine imported Volvo products. Can you imagine anyone interested in viewing on the Internet or purchasing a 1972 Mustang Mach I, being confused and therefore not purchasing a 2003 Volvo 4-door sedan? Or is Volvo contending that the museum is somehow profiting or being deceitful by displaying a beautifully restored 1958 Thunderbird and, therefore, a potential Volvo customer might be misled into thinking that the restored 1958 Thunderbird is a late model Volvo?

Perhaps the attorneys that filed the Volvo WIPO complaint never bothered to tell Ford Company executives what they were doing or what they had in mind. Or perhaps the attorneys, in their zeal to garner mammoth lawyer fees, are generating nonsensical WIPO complaints with a view toward trying to stamp out a small local enterprise that was displaying and selling classic and antique American produced cars long before Volvo opted to enter the profitable United States marketplace.