Greetings all,Michael Bass of Stevens International emailed out an interesting note toinform us that companies like Boeing are seeking to turn US militaryaircraft like P-51 Mustang and F-15 Eagle into trademarks so they can, inturn, charge the hobby manufacturers licensing fees for making thosesubjects into kits. This translates, of course, into higher kit prices forall of us! Here's his note:Greetings,Attached is a copy of a letter we have constructed and sent to our localcongressman ( Itappears all major kit makers in the USA are being harassed over thelicensing of military subjects as model kits. Aircraft companies have becomeincreasingly aggressive and threatening in the last year, and for those whostock and/or import kits, if the kits are not licensed, you can expectupcoming problems. We all need to do a lot of PR work on this, or we willsoon be paying increased costs for planes, tanks, ships and more.We have spoken to two different trademark attorneys as well as numerous USAmodel kit makers, and the answers are unanimous: these companies can attemptto require licenses and royalties to the extent no one stops them orcontests it in court. For example already Boeing has registered P-51Mustang and AV8B Harrier, and they are now beginning to require licenses tomake these subjects, even if the tooling is decades old. We intend to placearticles in trade and business magazines on this, as well as contacting ourlocal papers. If you can participate in your local area, do so. Anyquestions once you read the attached, let me know.Best regards,Mike

I think this is illegal...not really sure, but if the hobby industry chose to fight such in the US courts, I believe they would win. From what I understand, goods designed and manufactured using public government funds are not available to the contracted company for trademark or copyright - the public owns them because the public bought them. I've often been told that this is what allows many different manufactuers other than Colt to produce and sell the 1911 model automatic pistol (or parts for it) under thier own company name, for example.Processes or technology developed by the contracting company may be patented and licensed, but the end product is public property.I think...

And (Maiesm72) opened up and revealed to the worldnews: Tom, Here's a suggestion for ya, go to MSN Groups and search for "Nathanville Model Railway Village" it is a bi-level layout WITH a Stargate. Digital_Cowboy- -- Live Long and Prosper ___________________ _-_ ==============_=_/ ____.---'---`---.____ _ ----._________.----/ / / `-_-' __,--`.`-'..'-_ /____ ||- `--.____,-'

Higher Prices for US Aircraft Kit Subjects?

Aug 07, 2004 108 Replies

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John Hairell 21 years ago

I've had the face-fuzz since I got out of Uncle Sugar's service in

1981. And for some strange reason none of my old military clothing fits anymore - it's shrunk multiple sizes. Must be that poor quality government cloth....

John Hairell ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com)

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WmB 21 years ago

Apparently, Dockers and Wrangler are the contractors, 'cuz I've been having the same problem for years. ;-)

WmB

To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net

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Maiesm72 21 years ago

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll try those sites.

Also found Feather River Trains just north of here a few miles. They carry only N Gauge.

Tom

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Kurt Laughlin 21 years ago

"Jonathan M" wrote

I can understand that. My world is Earth; Reality. Yours is Utopia; Fantasy.

Do you own any sort of insurance? Do you pay into or withdraw from a pension? Do you pay taxes?

If the answer to any of these is 'yes', you are participating in a system that uses money as the unit of measure to make decisions about far ranging things that otherwise would be incomparable. These systems assign different values to different people, without exception. As much as it may be repulsive to you, you are powerless to do anything about it, and completely unable to remove yourself from the system.

Sorry, KL

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Kurt Laughlin 21 years ago

"AM" wrote

of the loop.........

No sweetie, I've seen it all along. What I noticed was that you took the effort to hide it at the bottom of the message by adding a bunch of whitespace so that it wouldn't appear directly under you insult. That would've made it obivous to EVERYONE that you were a nitwit, wouldn't it? Too bad you weren't bright enough to just turn it off altogether. I see you used a different anonymous account this time. Just too weak and afraid to use your real name with everything you post, I guess. I can understand that. It's typical behavior for the dullards and blowhards on here, and you are no exception.

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Gray Ghost 21 years ago

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Maiesm72) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m04.aol.com:

Go to any hobby shop that deals in trains. There are books of layouts, even a small pamplet like thing from Atlas. I have several somewhere (still nursing hopes of a layout one day). If I can dig it up and get the scanner going I'll do some for you.

Also try

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I have a whole bunch of sites bookmarked which could zip up and email you if you'd like.

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Digital_Cowboy 21 years ago

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Peter W. 21 years ago

And they have even more OT postings than here! Peteski

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Jonathan M 21 years ago

Goonight, Kurt.

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