The world’s most recognized trademarks are the world’s most recognized trademarks because companies have invested heavily in them. Their brand, their market awareness is a core asset. So they protect them. I don’t think they’re goon squads, they’re just business trying to maintain control of their brand image. Most companies don’t run around bullying moms and pops on E-Bay, but when it comes to something like Coke, and the retail distribution and promotion network for it, that’s where they make their coin, that’s where a Coca Cola brand matters, so of course they have to be diligent. To say otherwise would be naiive.
The UP thing, my understanding is that they thought they could make maybe a couple hundred thou of ancillary income (a drop in trhe bucket for UP) if they took a cut of all the tons of MR products that were out there that were leveraging the UP (their) image. It was a bit of a stretch, for the MR model “industry” is, for all intents and purposes, a bunch of mom and pop-style operations - there’s not a lot of scale out there. So UP actually tarnished their brand image by pursuing this, and they increasingly came to realize this as the bad press built up about them jumping on model railroaders. So they eventually backed off, and agreed to the standard railroad industry practice of licensing their image to MR companies for one dollar, as well as a signed agreement that protected their brand image rights. My understanding is that they also asked for a “TM” copyright mark to be put by their name when used in promotion, for a further ounce of protection…after all, they had lawyers on this. So in the end it was a tempest in a teapot, and UP realized there was no there there in terms of revenue for them in MR model licensing, at least not enought to offset the negatives they were stirring up. In the end, it was a business decision, as all companies do.
Don’t we have a problem with getting some 1:87 scale vehicle models because GM doesn’t want them made? It seems to me that they had some rediculous justification that small children might swallow them and choke.
C’mon, it’s GM…they couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag.
A smart company would recognize the long term brand value of having kids play with toys of their cars…the nascent beginning of a longer-term customer relationship. But it’s GM. That’s vision for ya. They don’t sweat the “small stuff”, do they?
put it up , make note your selling your one piece collection of the model, post a pic, leave off any trademark name, the buyer will recognize it. put 747 down, search can find that.
To everyone who is against this being on this forum, I’d like to say that it’s an interesting and semi-relevant conversation that a lot of people find interesting - A tiny bit of diversity here and there isn’t so bad.
This thread is against the forums rules, as it takes away from the intent of the forum.
I agree with some of the people before me who say that this thread shouldnt be here. It has nothing to do with model railroading…nothing. You can say it is about the UP licence issues of the past, but in the origional post it says NOTHING about UP or how this thread is relevant to Model Railroading.
Wait a minute. You find only three people, mostly on the last page of a three page tread, that i happen to miss, actually sounding more like there joking, boarder line trolling, and THAT’S what makes you little “B” for the weekend?HAHAHA! Your a funny guy. I thought you were actually seriuos, this and the Memorial thread! HAHAHAHA!!! Wow, I actually thought there for while you actually thought you were mimi-be, but after last weekend? HHAHA!ROTFLOL. It’s too early in a long weekend for this Dave.
Wasn’t that back in 2005? I think you were here then Mr. Beasley.[;)] Me and a number of forum members were upset over the situation. Especially since we were so close to finally get a classic American city bus from the past.
Bill Cawthon, from the 1/87th Club, deserves a very big “Thumbs up” because he became involved with that issue through his contacts. This occured just before Busch was going to produce 1/87th models of the GMC Fishbowl bus and various other GM cars. There are more details but to make this long story short, that issue was finally resolved which is why you can go to Wal-Mart or local hobby shops and still purchase HO scale GM vehicles.