He claims he bought the car legally and is now rebuilding it online.
This is a familiar tale. Man purchases a wrecked ex-custom pizza delivery vehicle, and makes videos about how to rebuild it. Unnamed people then tell him he must sell the car because he is accused of trademark infringement. It’s possible that it’s not a common story, or even one we have heard. However, it is one of those blood-boiling David-versus-Goliath stories that deserves at least some recognition.
This is the story we know so far. Samcrac is a YouTube car guy who buys and builds wrecked cars. He stumbled upon an Chevrolet Spark with a pizza-warming oven and wearing the colors of Domino’s Pizza. It’s one the special DXP delivery vehicles that the company built a few years back. There are other options for getting your pizza delivered.
This particular model was damaged and sold through a Copart auction. Samcrac claims that the deal was legal and included all necessary paperwork. The car was rebuilt by the accused, who did so on camera. However, YouTube was contacted shortly afterward by a person who claimed that his videos violated trademark laws. Samcrac says the accuser used a Gmail account, and was “affiliated to the company this car represents”, which allegedly is Dominos. He felt that he had done nothing wrong after reviewing YouTube’s guidelines about trademarks and copyrights. It is possible that YouTube agreed, since YouTube does have the power to remove videos for trademark violations but didn’t in this case.
Samcrac didn’t give a timeline, but later still the YouTuber said that a “person” approached him about selling his car. Samcrac declined the offer. The YouTuber claims that the conversation turned into a request that Samcrac either sell the car at the offered price or face legal action for trademark infringement. Samcrac claims that the legal action involves an individual or entity (he is vague in the video, but we assume it’s legal reasons). Samcrac claims that he was given a document that contained not only verbiage about selling the car but also stipulated that he could have control over how his YouTube videos were produced. Yikes.
He didn’t sign the paperwork. Instead, he used social media to launch a GoFundMe Campaign to pay legal fees. However, a notice posted on theSamcrac page states that he has been offered assistance and has now closed the donations.
We only have one side of this story so we don’t know where the specific legal action against Samcrac came from. We can tell you that Domino’s may be in for a huge PR disaster due to someone posting a video of one of its quirky delivery cars.
Samcrac has been contacted for more information. We will keep you posted as new information becomes available.