This HID Company Almost Trademarked A Rival’s Name Out Of Spite

Who knew that arguments between two professional companies could get so petty. Apparently The Retrofit Source based out of Atlanta, Georgia filed a patent to trademark their rival company’s name (DDM Tuning out of Chula Vista, Calif.) in an attempt to either force its rival to unnecessarily change its name or just out of plain old trolling fun.

According to TRS in an exclusive letter to DDM, “The mark was filed with the intent to protect a new automotive lighting ballast that we are developing. The product will be called “Device Driver Module” and enables users the ability to tune the output (in watts) according to their preference, thus the name DDM Tuning.” Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

Click here to read the whole epic thread for yourself.

All this came to light when The Retrofit Source called out DDM Tuning on HID Planet.com for posting a Youtube video earlier last week bashing the quality of one of TRS’s projector and LED lights (thread linked above.) DDM tuning, possibly in a lack of hindsight but more likely just poor juedgement, tried to post that video anonymously under a shadow screenname “ERP” on HID Planet.com highlighting TRS’s product (video posted below.) Anonymous poster “ERP” specifically detailed the alleged”poor quality”. According to the ERP,

"Quality issues aside this is a very poor practice on your end to censor the very criticism you praised on the comments of that youtube video."

In a clever showing of internet sleuthing worthy of the title “#1 Internet  P.I.” The Retrofit Source’s own president Matt Kossoff traced ERP’s profile all the way back to DDM tuning. ERP had placed an order for one of TRS’s XD LED Bulbs back in early April. When ERP provided an order number to Matt, the phone number provided on the order sheet matched the phone number of DDM tuning’s HQ. In addition, the shipping address was right across the street from DDM. In a show of retaliation, DDM Tuning released all documents attached to the trademark name fiasco as well as a call to throw down both their products in a “once and for all” unbiased competition.

According to the trademark, the actual date filed was long before any real “beef” between the companies existed. Perhaps TRS wanted an ace up its sleeve to pull out if things ever got out of hand between the two. Maybe it was just a classic case of internet trolling gone to far. Regardless, we hope these two companies work out their differences. You’ll be happy to know that since then, DDM has filed to keep the name for itself. As for this business of anonymous posting/bashing, just don’t. Although it IS quite entertaining.