If You Already Thought Ken Block Was A Douchebag, This Post Won't Change Your Mind

What, exactly, is Gymkhana? In most countries, it’s similar to “autotesting”, which is a British equivalent to autocross. Think lower speeds and more emphasis on stunt-like stuff: stop in a marked box and reverse out, handbrake turn around a cone, that sort of thing. Those of you who read Japanese can find out more about Japanese gymkhana here.

An organization called Gymkhana GRID came up with a fascinating idea: have two cars competing head-to-head on a mirror-image course. This isn’t a perfectly original idea. The SCCA has had ProSolo events for a very long time, running two cars from a drag tree through mirrored courses. This video starts slowly but will give you a pretty good idea of how it works. As far as I can tell, GymkhanaGRID was meant to be a combination of the ProSolo idea and donuts around trash cans. They’ve even run an event or two, one of which featured a “throwdown” between Ken Block and Tanner Foust in kind of an Ultimate Battle Of Self-Promoting Thirtysomething Backmarkers.

This year, however, Gymkhana Grid has been forced to cancel its event due to trademark ownership and licensing issues. It would appear that someone already owns the idea of “gymkhana”, and it isn’t the SCCA.

According to the promoters,

We have been informed that we can no longer use the word “Gymkhana” for an at profit business with out licensing the word “Gymkhana” It turns out that a certain company has trademarked the word “Gymkhana” for all motorsport activities, including the class of goods and services covering recreational events and activities relating to motorsports as stated in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office registered trademark serial number 85249801. Basically that means you need to pay a license fee if your allowed to even use the word “Gymkhana” in relation to your activity if it is a business for profit. If this corporation knew what it took to put on a grass roots motorsport event they would understand that unless it gains huge support, there is not much profit to be made and that sometimes, people put on these events simply for the LOVE of the sport. ALL of us at Gymkhana GRID love the sport and the potential in the sport. However, we do not have the financial means to continue on this licensing path of greed over a single word!

Ooh! Let’s go take a look at that serial number.

On Wednesday, February 23, 2011, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for GYMKHANA by DC Shoes, Inc., Huntington Beach, CA 92649. The USPTO has given the GYMKHANA trademark serial number of 85249801. The current federal status of this trademark filing is NON-FINAL ACTION – MAILED. The correspondent listed for GYMKHANA is MITCH MILSTEIN of QUIKSILVER, INC., 15202 GRAHAM STREET, TRADEMARKS/LEGAL DEPT. HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA 92649 . The GYMKHANA trademark is filed in the category of Computer & Software Products & Electrical & Scientific Products , Education and Entertainment Services . The description provided to the USPTO for GYMKHANA is Amusement apparatus and games adapted for use with television receivers or with video or computer monitors; Recorded and pre-recorded materials, namely, CDs, CD-ROMs, and DVDs, all featuring sports and recreational activities in the nature of motorsports racing and exhibitions, surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, street sports and music; apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of sound or images; magnetic data carriers, downloadable files of sounds and/or images, in particular mu.

I don’t think “mu” there has anything to do with friction, it’s just where the available excerpt ends. So, just to reiterate:

• Gymkahana is a well-known global description of a motorsport.
• A company held American “gymkhana” events last year.
• DC Shoes, formerly owned by Ken Block and now affiliated with him, registered the name this year.
• And they feel their legal position is secure enough to threaten the company which ran the event last year to fold.

The hell with occupying Wall Street. Somebody occupy the Patent Office. To be fair, the final decision hasn’t yet been handed down on this rather, shall we say, speculative application, but in the meantime DC Shoes is free to use its legal might to clamp down on anyone who might potentially infringe.

My suggestion for a resolution: The SCCA can keep the real motorsports, these GRID people can keep the pretend motorsports, and DC Shoes, along with Ken Block, can stick to the business of pay-crashing in rally events and making garbage shoes in China and Vietnam.