Standing firm on principle, Mike Wolf, president and owner of MTH Electric Trains, has negotiated a new royalty-free licensing deal with the Union Pacific RR that extends to all model railroad manufacturers and their products in all scales.
Read Model Railroader’s exclusive interview with Wolf at http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=a&id=907
Right on!! Good for him.
While this is certainly good news for all railroad modelers, does it also mean that model makers who have been charging $5 extra for UP decorated items will now lower their prices? I’m not going to hold my breath on that one.
This has been a pet peeve of mine. It was killing me that we were advertising these companies for them on our trains and they still wanted to charge us for copyright. IMHO that’s absolutely ridiculous. They should be paying us for advertising! And you can bet that Mike Wolf made that point. Good for him - I know some folks here hate MTH but I am rather neutral about them and this is certainly good news.
I agree, long overdue. I think the editorial from the publisher of Model Railroad News was right on. He states UP must have figured everybody would be wearing UP hats and tee-shirts. Slacks and dresses with UP logos, etc and the total dollars would be huge, like Thomas or Harry Potter.
It didn’t happen and litigation was certainly costing more than any fees generated. So Sipple said UP should stand back, take a look and so OK, we tried it, didn’t work, let’s do something else.
It appears the Brass at UP finally figured that out.
OR…They got tired of getting kick in the groin daily over it.
Tilden
That’s good for the hobby. I wonder if those who consider Mike Wolf to be the hobby’s very own Antichrist will now modify their opinion somewhat.
Andre
Good grief, Don Rumsfiled, Mike Wolf, who is left to kick around, CB ??
Good move on U.P.'s part at long last, a big thank you to Mike for turning on the lights in Omaha finally!
Will
I just got the email headlines from Trains also and it would be interesting to know what details are involved to move the Union Pacific to offer the deal for free to all.
Maybe Mike gave all the executives a Challenge and Big Boy in # 1 Scale.
Un…be…lievable.
I never thought of anything Mike Wolf could say or do that would make me like MTH, but this may actually do it. Holy smokes! I feel like printing “V” for Victory buttons!
BTW, does this mean I can sue UP to get those hours of my life back that I spent discussing their old licensing scheme? [:)]
Mike Wolf, I still won’t buy your DCS stuff, but… Thanks, Mike. Lift a cold one 'cause you won one for the good guys this time.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
This is a good day for MTH, UP, and the hobby. Don Phillips had a very good column in the last issue of Trains magazine that expressed what a lot of us have been thinking about UP’s recent behavior (WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?). Hopefully this royalty-free licencing model will be followed by other railroads.
MTH may be quick on the draw when it comes to going to court, but they deserve BIG kudos for standing up for sound legal principles on this issue. It’s sad that the manufacturers in this hobby couldn’t get together to fight UP. MTH stuck to their guns when others caved.
Well this is interesting news. Just today someone from Omaha was in here defending the trademark license fees.
This seems too good to be true. Hopefully everything shakes out to be the way it used to be in this hobby.
While we are thanking Mike Wolf, let’s not forget Nils Huxtable with SteamScenes, Mr. Hundman, Model Railroad News, Don Phillips and others who have worked to reverse this.
This is a great relief! No longer will I have to explain why UP products are priced higher than BNSF products.
No longer will I be accused of being too stupid to read an invoice because there are two different prices on the same car.
No longer will I have to defend myself when someone accuses me of charging more for MP and SSW roadnames because I want to gouge folks interested in the local roadnames.
Man for everything else that has gone wrong today, this may be the best news I’ve heard all year.
Thank-you Mike Wolf and all the others involved. Common sense is a rare commodity these days…apparently there is some stored in the back somewhere and it was put to good use.[:)]
One never knows what is going to happen when two “sue happy” parties get together.
Last summer I had heard from sources high up inside UP that some of the “policies” surrounding model railroaders were being reconsidered. I still don’t think this makes up for the year(s) of wasted time over the back EMF issue, or the attack advertisements, or …name your most infamous one here…
Notice the part at the end about producing SD70ACe’s with UP and model manufacturers logos… nice little collectable for the part of the market that does that.
Well you can tell who the tougher litigant was in this suit – UP blinked first. [swg]
Mike remains true to form – tough as nails in the legal arena – and this time it paid off, cuz he was on our side. But heaven help us when he decides to turn on the other model manufacturers. I hope I’m wrong, but my bet is Mike will set his sights on continuing to grow his company through more litigation against other hobby manufacturers.
He’s proven in this case he can out-maneuver even a huge corporation, so look out hobby firms!
As far as I can tell, this is a win win deal all the way around. I for thank Mike for his efforts, and appreciate him putting his money on the line for UP fans everywhere… [:D]
Jeff
MIKE WOLF IS MY NEW HERO!
Careful, Scott…this could be a one-off occurance…
I will not buy MTH Products now, But it does help me somewhat. Even though I model NS in N scale, I still do pickup CNW stuff in HO. One of the reasons why I switched Roads when I switched scales was NS was cheaper by about 5 bucks per (insert equipment here). Its (I thought) More common than CNW. Anyways, Thanks Mike, you did something right for once.
Remember, even Al Capone gave Christmas presents to the poor children in Chicago. Maybe this is the first sign that Mike Wolf has changed his spots. Time will tell.
Ok, I just had to edit this cartoon to represent the reality of the situation:
You-know-what has frozen over!
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven