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Current owners of Duesenberg name, trademark, etc.?

  • Chris Summers
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01 Nov 2010 12:46 #18305 by Chris Summers
Replied by Chris Summers on topic Current owners of Duesenberg name, trademark, etc.?
Jeff,

The Club accepts Second Generation cars and has grown to incorporate the best historical and technical minds on those cars, as with our other makes. (Notice we have a Second Generation forum here.) I recommend joining the Club, if you haven't already, because it will be an invaluable resource as the car goes back together.

It would be welcome at the Reunion this year, on a trailer, under its own power, or however you can get it there.

Chris Summers
ACD Club
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H.H. Franklin Club

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

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31 Oct 2010 18:35 #18304 by mdsbob
The serial # on the one in Glenn Pray's Museum is PT 1003.
I would interpret that to be Prototype #3.
Bob

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31 Oct 2010 14:47 #18303 by alsancle
Hi Jeff,

I thought #1 was sitting in Glenn Pray's museum in broken arrow? Perhaps his is #2? While I prefer the original, the Glenn Pray addition is unique in it's own right and I certainly wouldn't mind having one.

A.J.

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  • jjpilot
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31 Oct 2010 05:12 #18302 by jjpilot
Ok.

To stir up an old thread, and rejoin the Cord world, and Bill Hummel and Josh Malk, and old name for you both. Hope to hear from you.

Hi guys and gals.

I am the owner of Serial #1 of the Glenn Pray Cord. My Granddad, Fred Bauer, was one of the initial investors in said company. He was the owner of #3, which is still in my family, unfortunately on blocks somewhere in Dallas, and belongs to my uncle. My car was bought at the Kruse auction in '73, with 3000 miles or so on it!!!

My car is not currently running, but do plan on getting it together this winter. I have the powerplant out, rebuild coming soon. It's gonna get paint too it looks like, needs it bad, as it's just flaking off the wonderful plastic body!!!

Granddad wrote what is probably the ultimate history of the Pray/Mckinley Cord that was published in the August 1972 issue of Cars and Parts magazine. I have copies if anyone is interested.

Please feel free to contact me, as I get this little piece of history back in motion. It's kind of neat to see the pictures of me and my little sister on the fenders of Grandad's car when I was six years old, in front of the house the me and my family live in today!!!

I look forward to talking to you all in the cord, and/or corvair community

Jeff Bauer
618-780-2380
<a href="mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url]

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  • clydester
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06 Sep 2007 19:16 #7940 by clydester
A cruise thru "Duesenberg"products on ebay will quite often show guitars using the name..Evidently, they're paying rights to someone.

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  • Peconga
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30 Aug 2007 00:39 #7904 by Peconga
According to the US Patent and Trademark Office [url:2n8dvb6o]http&#58;//www&#46;uspto&#46;gov[/url:2n8dvb6o] both the Duesenberg name and logo is currently registered for automotive use by James A. Wahl on behalf of Duesenberg Motors, LLC of Maple Plain, Minnesota . Claims by all other parties appear to have been closed or adandoned. Mr. Wahl seems to have been diligent in also protecting the name for use on other products as diverse as motorcycles, aircraft, casinos, restaurants, cologne, leather goods, watches, etc etc.

Cheers,
Doug in Boise, Idaho

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  • Josh Malks
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05 Feb 2004 13:48 #1290 by Josh Malks
The Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Company was a name coined by Dallas Winslow in 1938 after he bought the Auburn Automobile Company and Duesenberg, Inc. (Until then there had never been an entity by such a name, hundreds of poorly-researched magazine articles and book pages notwithstanding :-) Auburn had built the Cord; Duesenberg was a separate company. Both had been controlled by E.L. Cord's holding company, the Cord Corporation. In the 1950s (I think) Winslow sold the Duesenberg assets, including the name, to Marshall Merkes of California. I suspect that the name was later resold to those who planned to re-intro the D car, and is still owned by somebody.

In about 1960 Glenn Pray bought Winslow's Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Company, and with it the company name. He also received title to the Auburn and Cord names, logos, etc. He has been collecting royalties on their use for decades (including from Mattel for Hot Wheels). He sold the Auburn name and logo last year to some hopeful entrepreneurs in California. He still owns the Cord name and logo.

To confuse things further, the Auburn Automobile Company's corporate name became available in the state of Indiana a few years ago, and was then re-incorporated by Jack Randinelli. So Auburn lives again in Auburn, but without the logo!

Josh B. Malks
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ACD Club Life Member
ACD Newsletter editor
Past president
www.automaven.com

Check out CORD COMPLETE at www.cordcomplete.com

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  • Bill Hummel
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05 Feb 2004 10:35 #1289 by Bill Hummel
Replied by Bill Hummel on topic Who owns what name?
Uh oh .... I see it coming now! This is going to be a very long thread!

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  • bygeorge
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05 Feb 2004 03:23 #1288 by bygeorge
Curiousity has me, and I am dying to know... and I know someone here can answer this question..

I am a member of CORSA, the Corvair Society of America, and this month there was an article in our monthly magazine, the Communique, about the Corvair powered Cord 8/10's built in the 1960's by Mr. Glenn Prey. There have been other articles about these cars in recent years. I am a huge fan of both the Corvair and the original Cord 810?s and 812s but had no idea of the history behind the 8/10?s- I had always assumed that they were a typical (i.e. unauthorized and poor quality) 60?s kit car.

At any rate, an earlier article in the Communique stated that Mr. Prey had acquired the rights to the Auburn-Cord-Duesenburg name and trademarks, etc, and the most recent article states that Mr. Prey is still the president of Auburn-Cord-Duesenburg. However, in the January 5, 2004 issue of AutoWeek, on page 7, there is an article titled ?Does Duesey Have a Future?? that states that Dave Hartje of Wisconsin currently has the rights to the Duesenburg name, and is president of Duesenberg Motors, and has been since 1996. (I also remember that descendents of the Duesenburg brothers tried to revive the marque in the mid 60?s and the late 70?s/early 80?s, and maybe, I suspect, that is where the divergence occurred.) At any rate, I am now wondering about the true provenance of the A-C-D marques and trademarks. If Hartje has the Duesey rights, how can Mr. Prey be president of Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg?

Anyway. I know this isn?t exactly a question about the classic 1930's machines, but any help provided in clearing up this mystery would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for any help anyone can provide.

Pat McLaughlin[i:2deq28lf][/i:2deq28lf]

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