Gymkhana lawsuit

[GunnSlinger]

I hate law suits but I don't think I would go as far to say that they made him who he has become. Ken branded himself pretty well before the whole Gymkhana deal came to be.........

You don't think Mad Media had ANYTHING to do with his success in Motorsports?? Very few people knew who Ken Block was before Gymkahna 1, now days he is ALMOST a a well known household name like Travis Pastrana is.

... Mad Media had A LOT to do with his success in Motorsports

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[dan200]

I would say they have both done pretty well off each other actually. BUT in the end this is a fight over a domain name of a sport. The fact that block has built a serious brand image around the word Gymkhana does not mean he owns it.

According to Block

"With regard to the domain name, my experience has been that partners on projects who have been brought on in a work for hire situation like Mad Media was on these projects will sometimes acquire URL's to help protect the people they are working for and then assign them to the brand owner. So, particularly in light of them being a media company, I kind of assumed that might be the case here, and that Mad Media had purchased Gymkhana.com on behalf of its clients (us) and would pass along the URL with a comment like; "Just helping you out because we appreciate you as a client." Apparently, that was not the case!"

and

"I first became aware that Mad Media had registered Gymkhana.com when a friend sent me a screengrab taken of a comment that Josh [Martelli] had posted on his Google+ account roughly around the time that we released our Gymkhana FOUR video."

So, three videos later KB finally finds out he may be really good at marketing himself, his sponsors and the sport of "Gymkhana" but that doesnt mean he owns the sport or, much less, the domain name. He failed to practice due diligence when he did his contracts and he loses...

Well maybe...

The claim is...

"By registering and using the domain name GYMKHANA.COM, Mad Media breached its contractual obligations to Plaintiffs to refrain from using the knowledge it gained from its contractual relationship with Plaintiffs to misappropriate, interfere with, or profit from opportunities and property in the GYMKHANA brand."

without knowing exactly what is in the contracts, (and what isnt) its hard to pass judgement... I do know that Mad Media is smart and hopefully they covered their bases here...

Next case...

[BGRANT]

Ohhh you were talking about his success in motorsports...OK, I will give you that, to an extent. Ken has been a fixture in the action sports community long before Mad Media made him famous, dating back to his hand in 8 Ball, Droors Clothing (DC), Blunt Magazine and eventually DC Shoes. Like I said before, I hate bullsh1t lawsuits and yes, KB is arrogant as they come, but you have to give credit where credit is due. He and Damon built their company from nothing and he has used his success to pursue a life long dream of rally racing. While he may not be the best, though he may act like it, he is still a pretty good driver.
I still hate lawsuits and you should never sue friends.
Flame , or should I say, fire away!

You don't think Mad Media had ANYTHING to do with his success in Motorsports?? Very few people knew who Ken Block was before Gymkahna 1, now days he is ALMOST a a well known household name like Travis Pastrana is.

... Mad Media had A LOT to do with his success in Motorsports