A rude 'Hello".

I promised more information on the Autorama to Autoshow name change.

As it turns out, Promotions, Inc. registered "Autorama" as a Federal trademark in 1992. Champion Auto Shows, Inc. (CASI) now owns that federal trademark. Their attorney contacted us November 10 and wrote, "...your use of the trade name "Conquerors II Autorama" infringes on CASI's federal trademark."

Our attorney said that for us to continue using "Autorama" required 'prior and continuous use' of the copyrighted "Autorama". We definitely had 'prior' use for the 1957 and 1958 Autoramas and we heard not a peep from CASI about the 2007 Conquerors II Autorama at the Lansing Center.

'Continuous' use of "Autorama" is not quite so clear. We used "Autorama" only when we held or were planning an auto show...four times in 53 years.

If you Google "autorama", over 30 uses of "autorama" associated with auto events or sales but not associated with CASI pop up. Many link with other words in a title...Beloit Autorama or Detroit Autorama or the Aut-O Rama. But our attorney said going to court was the only way to clear our use of the title. He also noted that a court injunction would screw us in royal fashion.

We took the expedient path, changed the show name and ate the expense of redoing all our promotional material, getting a new name for the web site as well as revising the web site. Still cheaper and more certain than going to court.

Thanks for listening,

Bill