DP Tuner Software

[Corey Cohron RIP]

Members and Guests,

Often, we come across posts on various forums where people ask about the relationship between Power Hungry Performance and DPTuner (the company). Recently, a thread was started on FTE about this relationship and how PHP is connected to DP Tuner (the software). The reason I have chosen to post this on our forum is in case any members or guests have similar questions about the connection between PHP and DP Tuner Software but didn't see the original thread on FTE. In this thread (titled Power Hungry Performance, mind you), someone from the other company chose to post about our software and imply that we were doing something illegal by distributing it and also using the name DP Tuner Software. Below is our objective reply to her post. If you'd like to read the entire thread, it can be found here.

Please know that it is not our intent to disparage anyone. The fact is that since 2007, certain individuals have chosen to tell lies about PHP, both verbal and written, to members of the automotive performance community for reasons that we have yet to understand. Since Bill has been in this industry for a dozen years, most of these fallacies have fallen on deaf ears. We are quite aware, however, that most customers and forum members don't know the facts as well as those on "the inside," and from time to time, we find ourselves having to post factual information in an effort to thwart the lies that are, obviously, still being told. We were really pleased that this thread offered us an opportunity to set a portion of the record straight.

There is obviously much more to the story of our relationship -- personal and professional -- with the Tiptons. For those of you who have heard rumors that Bill and Jody were going to work together, you're right. They were. It simply didn't work out for various reasons, and we formed PHP!

Blessings,
Corey

1 - When we owned Diesel Power, Jody purchased our DP Tuner tuning software almost a full year after I tuned his 7.3L. Luckily, we keep really good records, so we know that I tuned Jody's truck (with an 80hp calibration) for the first time on May 29, 2003. There were shifting issues with that calibration, and I tried a few times to tweak it long distance. Jody came over to our house on July 19, 2003 so that I could live tune his truck. Obviously, that was long before Jody started tuning and DP-Tuner was created. In fact, we still have the invoice showing that Jody purchased our DP Tuner software, all of my stock Ford calibrations, all then current Ford Power Stroke calibrations, all then current RDT Ford Power Stroke RDT files, and 2 Romulator adapters on May 5, 2004.

2- As an authorized reseller for both the PCMX and the subsequent DP Tuner Software, I sold TS Performance a fully licensed version of the software on May 6, 2003, and THAT is when their licensed copy became known as TS Performance Software.

3 - Diane is absolutely right about the fact that Kevin wrote the software. What has not been made clear, however, is that at my request, Kevin built us a private-labeled version called DP Tuner which was initially released on January 27, 2004. This software superceded PCMX, which is what we had been reselling up to that point. He is the one who added our company information, software name (DP Tuner -- for Diesel Power Tuner -- which I came up with) and the Diesel Power logo into the software. We were -- and still are -- authorized to distribute it to anyone we choose, and we pay him a license fee for every copy. For those who own a copy of DP Tuner Software, the logo is displayed by pressing ALT+F12.

4 - We have recently become aware that Jody chose to copyright the name DP Tuner, which is why we always make sure to differentiate DP Tuner Software from DP Tuner (the company). That's no different than, say, the company named "Mustang," which makes dynos and the car named "Mustang." One is a company name; one is a product name. Since 2004, we have used the name DP Tuner with and without the hyphen interchangeably. After we became aware of your trademark, we have tried only to use DP Tuner Software without the hyphen (out of respect to DP-Tuner's website name which bears the hyphen) and have always added the word "Software" after it in order to differentiate between the two. There's never any question that we are referencing our software.

If there is still any question as to the origin of the DP Tuner name with regard to our tuning software or our authorization to resell it, we will graciously provide any documentation requested.