Audi would never be this stupid .... would it?

[Steve Sears]

Interesting stuff, Brett.
I remember a couple of years ago there was talk of setting up a branch of 
the Audi Club International in the US - I heard that there was some 
suspicion in Europe of ACI as an attempt by Audi to exert some control over 
the enthusiast clubs.  I seem to remember that a couple of folks (Karen 
could have been one of the reps) from the ACNA went over to attend an ACI 
meeting to much fanfare.....but as Chairman of the DKW Club of America I 
never got any replies to my questions about the proposed US branch.  In 2006 
I spoke to a couple of folks at the Carlisle GTG that were planning 
something....and then again I haven't heard anything.  I'm registered for 
the 2008 Carlisle GTG (May 16-18) this year [shameless plug] ...maybe 
there'll be more info then.  As to a "Cease and Desist" order....the DKW 
Club has never got one, but I guess even Audi doesn't find a need to control 
a name associated with blue-smoke puffing cars.....unless maybe Trabant 
tries to grab it.....
Martin has www.quattro.ca registered and AFAIK he has not received a C&D 
order.  I guess considering that "quattro" means "four" in Italian.....I 
suspect they'd have just as much luck trying to trademark "car"
Cheers!
Steve Sears
1962 and '64 Auto Union DKW Junior deLuxes
1980 Audi 5000
1987 Audi 5000 Turbo Quattro
----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Brett Dikeman <quattro at frank.mercea.net>
> Subject: Re: Audi would never be this stupid .... would it?
> To: Ed Kellock <ekellock at gmail.com>
> Cc: "quattro at audifans.com" <quattro at audifans.com>
> Message-ID: <D30C826A-241F-42C3-8AD7-5F82E12F7367 at frank.mercea.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
>
> On Jan 14, 2008, at 6:54 PM, Ed Kellock wrote:
>
>> Audi has played similar games with the club and this very list.
>>
>> Originally, ACNA was name the Quattro Club.  Audi nixed that.
>>
>
> They wanted the club [to sound/be] inclusive of all models, and didn't
> like the club using their quattro trademark, supposedly.  AoA was
> supposedly also behind the big push for lots of "chapters", instead of
> regions.  They wanted dealerships to be able to say "Why yes sir, we
> have a chapter of the local club here in _____, bring your S4 to one
> of their events."  It is my personal suspicion that the effort was
> also motivated by a national club leadership's interest in reducing
> the size of the northeast region- which was something like a third of
> the total membership and thus could potentially wield considerable
> political power.
>
> I remember Phil Payne complaining years ago that the UK club was doing
> little more than having wine and cheese with Audi execs.  Which is
> precisely what Karen Chadwick seems to do- fly down to europe, get
> wined and dined, and play with RS4's and the like.  Pull up the club's
> I-990 forms to see how much she pulled down for getting to do this, if
> you're curious....and sitting down.
>
> I should postfix my comments by saying that this is all based on my
> memory from before I stopped doing things with the club.  Since almost
> exactly a year ago I haven't done anything with the ACNA or North
> Atlantic Chapter, and I've been all the better for it.  If you ever
> want to go into politics, take a trip through a chapter board of
> directors for a real introduction to what kinds of nastiness people
> are capable of.
>
> Things weren't rosy on the national level either- a lot of the bylaw
> modifications that were proposed had specific personal political
> motivations the board didn't disclose, and the infighting was so bad
> that Johan de Nysschen wrote a letter 
> (http://frank.mercea.net/~brett/images/aoa_letter.jpg
> ) and mailed it to (far as I know) every ACNA member last May...
>
>> This list was called the Quattro List, and audi pissed on that as
>> well.
>
>
> Not to the best of my knowledge, no.
>
> Brett