I seriously doubt that UP would have put their “heritage program” and its sources of financial support into the formal “charter” of the company (i.e., the “articles of incorporation” filed with the State of Delaware). Provisions locking a corporation into specific programs and sources of income don’t usually appear in articles of incorporation of major businesses. At most , there could be some general language in the articles authorizing the corporation to engage in historical preservation activities, without specifiying what they are or their sources of financial support. Anything more detailed could conceivably appear in an internal “vision statement” or some other internal policy statement that doesn’t have any legally binding effect, but not in the “charter” (i.e., the “articles of incorporation”).
An incorporated company in the United States has the same legal standing as a “living person.” This unique structure allows individual company officers to have separate legal liability and protection from certain wrong doing. Unlike England and other countries an American Corporation can only be held liable for the value of its assets. It can act as a person etc. and not be put in prison. This is one of the reasons that American companies have prospered in comparison to other nations - company officers will take risks and seek aggressive advantages.
Delaware being a very very small state with little population and few resources makes a “great state” of itself by providing very advantagious business laws for corporate use.
DELAWARE ADVANTAGES
The state business law is one of the most flexable in the country.
The Delaware Court of Chancery focuses solely on business law and uses judges instead of juries. An advantage for shareholder lawsuits. For corporations with thousands of shareholders this can be a big plus.
For Corporations, there is no state corporate income tax for companies that are formed in Delaware but do not transact business there.
Taxation requirements are often favorable to companies with complex capitalization structure and with large shares of stock.
There is no personal income tax for non-residents.
Shareholders, directors and officers of a corporation or members or managers of a Limited License Corporation LLC don’t need to be Delaware residents.
Stock shares owned by persons outside Delaware are not subject to Delaware taxes.
It’s really all about money - and the politics of other states.
Falcon that was why UP started their licensing requirements for all their Mecheridise in about 15 years ago. It was to provide a dedicated source of funding for the Heritage programs. IIRC they charge each company that wants to make anything with a UP or predecessor RR marking on it 500 bucks a year per trademark. Do the math it adds up fast in a hurry with models of the 4014 844 and 3985 alone. Then throw in their Heritage painted 70 ACES or their cars containers T-shirts anything with the UP logo on it. It makes bank nationwide.
The licensing requirements were done for essentially two reasons. One, as you state, was for revenue generation. The other was to protect the various UP trademarks themselves. With respect to the latter, a trademark holder who makes no effort to contol who is using its marks or how they are being used risks losing rights to the marks.
Neither of these measures would have required any changes to UP’s corporate “charter” (i.e, the articles of incorporation), and I very much doubt if any were made.