>From a purely selfish standpoint I'd like to see steep fees on UP models to
>drive 'undecideds' & new modelers to the Hill roads BUT I
also hate to see fellow modelers lose out. However if Atlas & others do not
put all the license fee on their UP products but 'spread it
around', then it does hit home ASSUMING it is significant. The UP PR release
(tks Brad) said "pennys" for a model but when I
searched their site I could not find specifically how much a model such as the
Atlas SD-24 is affected; Charlie or anyone else in the
business know? Which brings up the Burlington. Well into the 1900's, the
Burlington had NOT registered "Burlington Route" as a
trademark despite it's use for several decades. A big federal court case
resulted when they tried to stop a Chicago cigar distributor
from selling BR brand cigars. I suspect it was an issue for the Q as they
themselves had cigars branded CB&Q for sale on their trains
- the issue might not have come up if it had just been Ives or Lionel models
with CB&Q lettering. The Burlington won the case but the
question remains (I leave this for John or other atty's in this group): if a
"name" is not trademarked/licensed for 'x' # of yrs, when does
it enter the public domain & become a freebie (as has happened to several
"brands" over the years). In the case of UP, did they
register C&NW (& M&StL by default, etc) etc when they acquired them (assuming
said names had not been registered by C&NW or
M&StL atty's years before)? If not registered til recently, are names such as
C&NW available without license if someone wants to
play hardball with UP?
In any case, CB&Q fans (& all non-UP family road modelers) seem to tbe in the
clear unless those UP fees are significant and you & I
pay them indirectly when buying an Atlas SD-24, etc.
(as for that Q court case, have a copy of the entire proceedings which will be
used in a future "Collectibles" column in the BRHS
Zephyr on the question of how & when CB&Q names & slogans began, etc for dating
purposes - quite a fascinating story but then
most things about the Q are, right!?). Gerald
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