Weekly Roundup: Of All The Trademarks You Could Violate Edition
![20160413_182905 20160413_182905](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb4d04f3e-a2f3-46eb-93fa-9787a8b5878a_650x366.jpeg)
I was at Toys R Us with my clone, shopping for a drift trike, and I spotted a very familiar-looking logo. It was attached to the Avigo Neon. I suppose the "e" is different enough from the original to keep Avigo out of trouble, and if they do get in trouble --- hey, it's just a quick-bake Chinese import brand. You let the company go bankrupt and come back with the same products under a new name. Ain't globalization wonderful, for non-Americans at least?
This raises the question, however: if you're going to go through the trouble of stealing someone else's name and logo design, why not steal something that commands respect? Sure, I happen to have a very high opinion of the Neon, since I own and race one. I have to be the exception that proves the rule, however. Why not call it the "Avigo F12berlinetta" or the "Avigo E-Type" or, just possibly, the "Avigo Barracuda?"
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What do we have here? Well, it's a Mustang. But what's that in the upper left-hand corner? Why, it's only the flippin' sweet new logo for Avoidable Contact. The previous logo, a detailed medieval-style woodcut depicting your humble author writing a $6,000 check to NASA for disciplinary purposes, was too complicated to accurately reproduce, so I'm very happy with this.
It's attached to a pair of columns this week: an analysis of the Mustang's surprising sales success in Germany and a further discussion of ESC and its discontents. The website also reprinted my Elan NP01 test from the May issue of the magazine.
For TTAC, I told a tale of three Ubers and made fun of the half-wits at Motor Trend.
Brother Bark was uniquely productive this week: he discussed a recent high-profile road-rage incident that just might have been a premeditated murder, drove a FIAT 500X, answered a full list of your questions, and fulfilled the expectations of his harshest critics by saying nice things about a V6 Mustang.
Bark and I, along with three Road&Track contributors and a world-famous sheetmetal worker with an Alice-in-Chains beard, are girding our loins for the AER season opener at Watkins Glen next week. Right now I'm too fat for my race suit, I kid you not, so if you need me I'll be binging and purging. Have a great weekend everybody; I've got a date with an Indian Chieftain and maybe a few other things on the agenda.