It could very well be that endeavors like this outside of the USA fall under different rules...but I doubt it as far as patent infringment is concerned. Read on:
..., however I need to spend time with my patent attorney to see if Lockheed really can stop people making kits of it, as they claim to be able to. I don't think they can as their US design patent will have expired ages ago, the designation F104 was given to them by the airforce, thus it is public domain and cannot be trademarked, and the shape of the plane cannot be considered a work of art, therefore an artist's type copyright cannot be applied. About the only thing they have is the trademark on the word Starfighter in the field of model aircraft (yep, they took it out), which is why I've removed any reference to the word on my website (just need to change the video). Here's hoping!
cheers,
Regarding LM, someone just needs to stand up to them. People are ignorant of the laws relating to intellectual property protection. I was an R&D engineer in the automotive world for 7 years, so IP protection became second nature. There are only 2 ways of protecting the shape or form of something: if it's considered a work of art then an artist's copyright applies (Ferrari et al consider their cars to be works of art so they are covered here). If it's not a work of art it must be protected in USA by a design patent, in AUS by a design registration. These must be filed before disclosure, and may only be renewed once. That means that anything over 15 years old or so is fair game to copy, and there's nothing LM can do about it. The names, however, may be trademarked. Starfighter certainly is, however, Lightning cannot be trademarked as it is a word used in everyday conversation. The aircraft designation, F104 for example, I think has been given by the USAF, which means it is not the property of LM and cannot be trademarked as disclosure has already been made. This is my view on it, next week I'll be spending time with the patent attorney we used at my old job to see what his view is. LM may still send a ceast and decist letter, but all you need to do is point out the laws and the fact that you know them and they may back down. I'm not sure what I'd do if they didn't. It would be possible to win, and I would assume to recover costs as it could be easily proven that LM knew the laws and knew they were wrong as a case like this is black and white. I just hope it never comes to it!
cheers,
After the above communication, I happened to have dinner with one of our GPS/DGPS product patent attorneys. He agreed, but with the caveat that it would require some investigation...
Tom H. Nagel wrote:
Actually, Ed, and fellow flyers, it is not the evil lawyers doing this. It is the evil bean counters and the corporate dilberts who seek to maximize profit at any expense.
A certain linguistically challenged President is also currently
attacking lawyers accusing them (us) of junk lawsuits and causing a
malpractice insurance crisis. Wrong again. Same real bad guys, the bean
counters and the corporate bandits.
Tom H. Nagel
Columbus, OH
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Berris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>; "Jack Cooper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 3:47 PM
Subject: [RCSE] Lawyers are killing the kit business
I found this article on www.instapundit.com. It tells what lawyers are doing that can hurt small model makers.
Don Stackhouse already found out first hand what the impact of these "shakedown lawsuits) are all about but I thought you all might want to
read
this. Here it is:
"Lawyers Lay Waste to Military Models Industry by James Dunnigan February 3, 2005 Discussion Board on this DLS topic
For over half a century, kits have been sold that enable military history buffs to assemble scale models of military ships, aircraft and vehicles.
But
that era is coming to an end, as the manufacturers of the original equipment, especially aircraft, are demanding high royalties (up to $40
per
kit) from the kit makers. Since most of these kits sell in small
quantities
(10-20,000) and are priced at $15-30 (for plastic kits, wooden ones are about twice as much), tacking on the royalty just prices the kit out of
the
market. Popular land vehicles, which would sell a lot of kits, are missing as well. The new U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicles are not available because of royalty requirements. Even World War II aircraft kits are being hit with royalty demands.
These royalty demands grew out of the idea that corporations should
maximize
"intellectual property" income. Models of a companys products are
considered
the intellectual property of the owner of a vehicle design. Some intellectual property lawyers have pointed out that many of these demands are on weak legal ground, but the kit manufacturers are often small companies that cannot afford years of litigation to settle this
contention.
In the past, the model kits were considered free advertising, and good public relations, by the defense firms. The kit manufacturers comprise a small industry, and the aircraft manufacturers will probably not even
notice
if they put many of the model vendors out of business. Some model
companies
will survive by only selling models of older (like World War I), or otherwise "no royalty" items (Nazi German aircraft) and ships. But the aircraft were always the bulk of sales, and their loss will cripple many
of
the kit makers. Some of the vehicle manufacturers have noted the problem, and have lowered their demands to a more reasonable level (a few percent
of
the wholesale price of the kits)."
I guess model kit makers will have to rename their models to avoid these bottom feeding lawyers.
Ed
RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe"
and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
-- Simon Van Leeuwen RADIUS SYSTEMS PnP SYSTEMS - The E-Harness of Choice Cogito Ergo Zooom
RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
