ALPINE, Wyo. -- An Alpine bar owner says his eight-month dispute with the Chrysler Corp. was a headache and frightening at times, but in the end it improved business at the mountain village's only bar.
Fred 'Jeep' Molnar resisted Chrysler's orders to remove the name Jeep from Jeep's Bar and Lounge, despite threats by corporate attorneys that they would sue him for alleged violation of the copyright Chrysler owns on the name of the four-wheel-drive vehicle first built in 1940.
Molnar argued he had an equal right to use the name because he had gotten it before the vehicle was ever built. He said the nickname came from the Eugene the Jeep character in the Popeye comic strip, and it was given to him by his father in 1937.
'I told them, I own the name too and I had it first,' Molnar said Tuesday. ''It's my name, whether it be a nickname or a legal name. It just wouldn't be right to call it Fred's bar.'
Molnar said, when Chrysler lawyers suggested they would let him continue to use the Jeep name if he agreed to always put bar and lounge behind it, he told them, 'I had the name first, why don't you put vehicle behind your name.'
He said public support from all over the country, including from some Jeep workers in Toledo, Ohio, and as far away as Australia began turning the dispute in his favor.
'I'll say one thing, they gave me a lot of publicity,' Molnar said. 'It has helped. Business has picked up, and the only thing is, being a small place, all of sudden in comes all these orders for T-shirts and jackets and I don't have the stock to fill them.'
He said when the law firm of renowned Jackson lawyer Gerry Spence took an interest in the case and sent a letter to Chrysler on his behalf, the automotive giant apparently decided to cut its losses and settle the case.
The corporation sent Molnar a check for $3,900 to cover expenses incurred when he and his mother traveled to Detroit to try to resolve the dispute.
The check was made out to Fred Molnar, but Molnar said he signed it 'Jeep' and it went through.
Under the settlement Molnar will be allowed to continue using the Jeep name in connection with his bar and on promotional merchandise such as T-shirts and caps, but he cannot expand into new businesses or franchising and he cannot use the Jeep Eagle Corp. logo.
'It's a good feeling to be on a equal footing with Chrysler and I met a lot a good people through the whole thing,' he said. 'If it hadn't been for the publicity, there's no telling how far they would have taken it.'
