Found this shocking news online..perhaps some of you might already know. Source from: http://www.trk-dv.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=40
Just some info on the how BRIDE situation.. for those that dont know.. BRIDE got screwed and has been getting shafter by another company making taiwan seats under the bride name, claiming they are genuine because they own the trademark...long story short, there are currently no bride seats being made atm by the original manufacturer in japan, and it looks like there wont be ever again.
this is quoted from ziptied
--------------
"So here's the short story.....
BRIDE comes into existance. (same factory that does OEM NISSAN seats) They hire Tee's to do all their marketing and sales. Several years ago, Tee's gets in a fight with BRIDE and starts producing their own seats in Taiwan. So for several years, there were two BRIDE branded lineups of seats. Two BRIDE websites, etc. More recently, Tee's successfully steals the BRIDE from the original BRIDE in court because Tee's produced a US trademark and BRIDE didn't have anyhting like that. (they were dumb)
So the original manufacturer of BRIDE seats is now called LINEAR. They are an actual manufacturer of seats. (they still make OEM NISSAN seats and have a factory in Nagoya)
Tee's just branding outsourced seats as BRIDE. They are NOT a manufacturer. From what I understand, they are still producing seats under the BRIDE brand but they are made in Taiwan as they have been since Tee's and BRIDE broke off ties. That whole BRIDE JAPAN thing might as well say BRIDE TAIWAN as that's where I think they're all made now. Taiwan...trademarks...hahahaha! Those seats on ebay are probably made in the same factory and the factory probably registered BRIDE in Taiwan or some other sort of antic like that. If you want real made in Japan quality, LINEAR is where it's at."
"The court case happened in Japan, not in the US. I doubt much public info is available on it, especially in english. I don't know much about the Japanese court system, nor was I there to witness it but from what was posted directly from Tee's, it pretty much confirms what I was told. The fact that the Japanese court accepted a US trademark over the word of the manufacturer sucks but I don't know how different it would have been in a US court because of that trademark. (BTW, Tee's USA is LOT USA if I'm not mistaken....and that's Boon? That's not who we're talking about here, they just distribute whatever Tee's Japan offers them....it's Tee's Japan that legally jacked everything from BRIDE and shifted production to Taiwan.) To be fair, Tee's did make the name what it is today, they were in charge of marketing so I doubt the manufacturer would have been able to make BRIDE as popular as it is now....but that's still beside the point of stealing the brand name/logo from the manufacturer.
As for the name Linear, yeah, it sucks how it went down but I think I'll at least be able to convince them to change the logo. The only worse font than the one being used is comic sans haha. My boy here in Tokyo is still looking into buying a trademark for VICE Seats as LINEAR may allow us to rebrand the Linear models as VICE for the US market. (still not ideal but it's what we're pushing for now and if it does better than LINEAR, they may go back on their decision to use LINEAR) The R34 has the Linear logo on it but look inside the car...RECARO seats....yep. Until the LINEAR seats are approved, it's all about RECARO. The Bros sticker....lol, I was waiting for someone to point that out. It's just the vinyl shop's name but I almost fell over laughing when I saw it for the first time."
and
"Even though the whole sales team voted that VICE was the best name, the company owner decided to use his son's idea for a name, "LINEAR" I don't really like the name but whatever...but the logo the son came up with is horrible (see it on our car below, above door handle)...graphic design prodigy I think not...some sort of cowboy font with serifs? Why not make it a linear font even? The funnier part was for some reason, (being the expert on marketing in the US he is) he added POS in small letter offset to the upper right part of the logo. (position? I dunno what he was thinking) Even that took a few e-mails to get it removed...lol, you guys want to buy LINEAR brand PIECE OF SHIT seats??
I dunno, right now they're doing the FIA or whatever testing before we get any seats handed over to us. I'll post pics when they're available. Branding BS aside, they should be damn good quality seats and if it pans out like it's supposed to, my boy here in Tokyo and I will handle the US market for these."
Attached File(s)
linear.jpg ( 216.05K ) Number of downloads: 16
---------- Post added at 09:55 PM ---------- 6 hour anti-bump limit - Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------
Just some info on the how BRIDE situation.. for those that dont know.. BRIDE got screwed and has been getting shafter by another company making taiwan seats under the bride name, claiming they are genuine because they own the trademark...long story short, there are currently no bride seats being made atm by the original manufacturer in japan, and it looks like there wont be ever again.
this is quoted from ziptied
--------------
"So here's the short story.....
BRIDE comes into existance. (same factory that does OEM NISSAN seats) They hire Tee's to do all their marketing and sales. Several years ago, Tee's gets in a fight with BRIDE and starts producing their own seats in Taiwan. So for several years, there were two BRIDE branded lineups of seats. Two BRIDE websites, etc. More recently, Tee's successfully steals the BRIDE from the original BRIDE in court because Tee's produced a US trademark and BRIDE didn't have anyhting like that. (they were dumb)
So the original manufacturer of BRIDE seats is now called LINEAR. They are an actual manufacturer of seats. (they still make OEM NISSAN seats and have a factory in Nagoya)
Tee's just branding outsourced seats as BRIDE. They are NOT a manufacturer. From what I understand, they are still producing seats under the BRIDE brand but they are made in Taiwan as they have been since Tee's and BRIDE broke off ties. That whole BRIDE JAPAN thing might as well say BRIDE TAIWAN as that's where I think they're all made now. Taiwan...trademarks...hahahaha! Those seats on ebay are probably made in the same factory and the factory probably registered BRIDE in Taiwan or some other sort of antic like that. If you want real made in Japan quality, LINEAR is where it's at."
"The court case happened in Japan, not in the US. I doubt much public info is available on it, especially in english. I don't know much about the Japanese court system, nor was I there to witness it but from what was posted directly from Tee's, it pretty much confirms what I was told. The fact that the Japanese court accepted a US trademark over the word of the manufacturer sucks but I don't know how different it would have been in a US court because of that trademark. (BTW, Tee's USA is LOT USA if I'm not mistaken....and that's Boon? That's not who we're talking about here, they just distribute whatever Tee's Japan offers them....it's Tee's Japan that legally jacked everything from BRIDE and shifted production to Taiwan.) To be fair, Tee's did make the name what it is today, they were in charge of marketing so I doubt the manufacturer would have been able to make BRIDE as popular as it is now....but that's still beside the point of stealing the brand name/logo from the manufacturer.
As for the name Linear, yeah, it sucks how it went down but I think I'll at least be able to convince them to change the logo. The only worse font than the one being used is comic sans haha. My boy here in Tokyo is still looking into buying a trademark for VICE Seats as LINEAR may allow us to rebrand the Linear models as VICE for the US market. (still not ideal but it's what we're pushing for now and if it does better than LINEAR, they may go back on their decision to use LINEAR) The R34 has the Linear logo on it but look inside the car...RECARO seats....yep. Until the LINEAR seats are approved, it's all about RECARO. The Bros sticker....lol, I was waiting for someone to point that out. It's just the vinyl shop's name but I almost fell over laughing when I saw it for the first time."
and
"Even though the whole sales team voted that VICE was the best name, the company owner decided to use his son's idea for a name, "LINEAR" I don't really like the name but whatever...but the logo the son came up with is horrible (see it on our car below, above door handle)...graphic design prodigy I think not...some sort of cowboy font with serifs? Why not make it a linear font even? The funnier part was for some reason, (being the expert on marketing in the US he is) he added POS in small letter offset to the upper right part of the logo. (position? I dunno what he was thinking) Even that took a few e-mails to get it removed...lol, you guys want to buy LINEAR brand PIECE OF SHIT seats??
I dunno, right now they're doing the FIA or whatever testing before we get any seats handed over to us. I'll post pics when they're available. Branding BS aside, they should be damn good quality seats and if it pans out like it's supposed to, my boy here in Tokyo and I will handle the US market for these."
Attached File(s)
linear.jpg ( 216.05K ) Number of downloads: 16---------- Post added at 09:55 PM ---------- 6 hour anti-bump limit - Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------
