Looked for the latest and only found stuff from months ago, MTH must have a hearing date set for summery judgement (still can’t spell).
Similar foolishness is taking place in the plastic model ( scale airplane, cars and armor) industries with companies (who will reamain nameless) who produce aircraft wanting royalty payments for models of their product.
I wish these corporate nuckleheads would recognize scale models for what they really are: free advertising! Any money they get out of these kind of law suites is far out weighed by the decades of free advertising they have gotten – and the (up till now) good will of people who enjoy building and running models of their product on our train layouts.
With the scale aircraft models there is a real danger that the companies involved will just say, “screw it” we won’t put out that model (of xyz’s) aircraft anymore - in which case the only real losers are the hobbists who wanted to build it, and, of course, the reputation of xyz aircraft.
With the competition that model building and model railroading is getting from other forms of entertainment it is not a good idea to be discouraging paticipation in either the manufacturing side or the consumer side of these hobbies.
I really think that the UP lawsuit (and the others) is a classic case of “biting your nose to spite your face”.
[soapbox]
Okay, I’ll step down off my soapbox… for now.
-George
Its only advertising if it generates additional business. What shipments has UP gained by putting their name on an HO boxcar? What shipper said “Wow that’s a cool SD40 model, I think I’ll ship UP.”? How many shippers meet in your basement or your local hobby shop (where they would see a model train ) to make their logistics decisions? I would think very few if any. Ever. Dave H.
As a business owner, I have no problem protecting my name and logo. It is mine, not MTH’s or anyone else’s.
So, I have no issue with UP wanting some control over where their name/logo is used.
Wonder what MTH would do if I decided to start a model railway business and call it, say, MTH? And use a nice pre-existing MTH logo? May be a different story when the shoe is on the other foot.
You should hear the anger and anitpathy towards the BC Winter Olympic Committee here in British Columbia. They have started singling out well established businesses, (Olympia Pizza, for example), and ordered them to desist from using any name associated with the Olympic Games. So far, the businesses are crumbling in the face of determined lawyers and Committee staffers. So, this happens even for entities that are not really businesses (i.ei, that get substantial investement and financial support from the Public).
I agree fully with your position on this; if you go to the trouble of paying a regulatory commission or body the licensing fees to establish a brand or named business, and someone uses that in a related enterprise, of what use was the original licensing? A business is an established entity, and should not have its identity stolen.
I’m in total agreement. As a business owner the last thing that I would want is someone to use my company’s name/logo for their monitery gain.
I dont hear anyone complain when any of the big car company’s officially license their products.(IMHO) It might improve the industry.
Hey Union Pacific could by like UPS.Not only do they not allow anyone their image on any model but they dont even want any emblems on any of their company vehicles.Next time when you see a tractor going down the road look for a Ford oval or a Mack across the front grill.(Mack made a special grill just for UPS)ABF freight did that 5 years ago.They told the decal companies to stop using their logo by xyz date and now you can not buy decals for their trucks or trailers.
So this is what can happen.I’ll gladly pay a few dollars more for a licensed model that I want than not having one at all.It really stinks.
Yes, VANOC is a funny one for sure. I would think the only issue would be if someone is using the Olympic name AND one of the Olympic Games trademarks, such as the 5 inter-locking rings… I can not recall the specifics of the Olympic Pizza case. Otherwise, why not go after Washington State for the Olympic Mountains? [:D] [:D]
I think that MTH’s actions have the potential to hurt the model railway hobby more than help. What is to stop UP from getting mad and doing a UPS? Or any of the other railways for that matter? Just get over it and move on. I too am willing to pay more, at least I
This is a very narrow view of what “advertising” is and does. A lot of “advertising” doesn’t generate actual sales. A lot of advertising is just to get the name of the company out there - to get it into the ears and in front of the eyes of people who would normally not hear or see it.
Some times the only thing advertising does is to generate a positive feeling towards the company. A perfect example would be the recent series of GE Locomotive ads that have been running on T.V. How many locomotive do you think GE sold because of those ads alone? No more than they would normally have sold I’ll bet, but it helped generate postive feelings towards the company by people who probably only thought that GE made toasters!
And as nebulous as it may seem to most people, the good will of the public can come in mighty handy when things go wrong.
As far as trademarks are concerned, if I had a hobby shop here in Utah and someone in Florida was selling t-shirts with my logo on it, I might be a little miffed - until someone from Florida walked into my shop and said, “Hey, I saw this store on a t-shirt is Florida and I thought I would stop in while on vacation!”
Sure, this scenario might not happen, but if I put a cease and desist order on the guy printing the t-shirts it will never happen.
I have no problem with someone (a company or individual) protecting their copyrights and what not from other people or companies who try to pass themselves off as the orig
I dont think that xyc company will be knocking at your door for using their logo as a screen saver or avatar. But if you try to sell it for monitery gain then you might hear from them.Now getting back to the MTH thread.Dont you think its kind of funny that UP has now come out with the “heritage” paint jobs on a couple new units?Are they doing this for their future court cases or they thought it would be a cool thing to do.I guess its just crappy timing for UP.
Anyhow UP has much deeper pockets than MTH.So we’ll see…[8]
[quote]
Its only advertising if it generates additional business. What shipments has UP gained by putting their name on an HO boxcar? What shipper said “Wow that’s a cool SD40 model, I think I’ll ship UP.”? How many shippers meet in your basement or your local hobby shop (where they would see a model train ) to make their logistics decisions? I would think very few if any. Ever. Dave H.
This is a very narrow view of what “advertising” is and does. A lot of “advertising” doesn’t generate actual sales. A lot of advertising is just to get the name of the company out there - to get it into the ears and in front of the eyes of people who would normally not hear or see it.
Some times the only thing advertising does is to generate a positive feeling towards the company. A perfect example would be the recent series of GE Locomotive ads that have been running on T.V. How many locomotive do you think GE sold because of those ads alone? No more than they would normally have sold I’ll bet, but it helped generate postive feelings towards the company by people who probably only thought that GE made toasters!
And as nebulous as it may seem to most people, the good will of the public can come in mighty handy when things go wrong.
I have no problem with someone (a company or individual) protecting their copyrights and what not from other people or companies who try to pass themselves off as the original, or people who try to defame a company or person through the use of copyrighted or trademarked articles. But lets have a little common sense here people!
Or do you really want a representative from UP (or NS, or CSX etc) showing up at your club’s next show and demanding royalties for your public exhibition of model trains showing their trademarked logos?
And before we get all “high and mighty” how many of you have downloaded music off the internet or copied movies from the pay per view channels? What about
I disagree that it’s free advertising. I think it’s artistic expression and should be allowed under a fair use provision. UP and other railroads exist in our environment and their use in artistic expressions of that environment (such as calendars and model railroads) should be allowed. Fanciful products based on brands such as Harley Davidson should pay a license fee.
Enjoy
Paul
Remember, everyday there are many boneheaded beancounters out there dreaming up such extortion schemes, under the title of “additional revenue sources.” After all, an agreement to use a logo, name, etc., for non-commercial purposes doesn’t need an exchange of money to be valid. What’s next? A licence in the box with a new freight car, requiring you to maintain it in pristine condition, forbidding any alterations, including weathering, because you really don’t own the car in question, only a licence to use it on your layout. (Maybe you’ll need additional licences to use it on other layouts!)
You’ve been talking to Bill Gates, haven’t you? [(-D]
-George