Quit buying the stuff, since they probably make it in china anyhow
and then want to charge a rediculous price for it to begin with then have to
pay for Atlas liscensing, then they may look for a different alternative the
the cost of the products, but they know the people will buy them so they
will charge whatever they want, I have gone 30 years without a Atlas SD24 so
I figure I can't lose anything I never had.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John D. Mitchell, Jr." <cbqrr47@yahoo.com>
To: <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 9:56 PM
Subject: Re: [BRHSlist] Licensing trademarks: Q & UP
> The rules for "trademarks" and "copyrights' differ
> greatly and are very technical. Presumably the UP
> holds both the copyright and trademark on their logos.
> We lawyers call that "belt and suspenders". I am also
> sure the BNSF has these tricks up their sleeves. They
> just have not decided that it is in their corporate
> best interests to follow the UP's lead (and CSX and
> others). If they think the PR value, of the present
> practice, is out weighed by the bucks to be turned by
> selling licenses, STANDBY FOR THE RAM. If you think
> the BNSF's lawyers are just a bunch of fun fellows and
> nice guys, I invite you to attend a law school, of
> your choice, for a few days! And one other thing, if
> the UP was not making money, on this program, they
> would not be doing it. They don't pay dividends, to
> their stockholders, by being stupid.
>
> John
> --- gaedgar66 <vje68@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > 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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