I agree that the rules for trademarks and copyrights are different,
but they are hardly "very technical". I have spent 20 years managing
the licensing program for a VERY famous sporting goods brand. Our
image was highly sought after by suppliers of caps, t-shirts, coffee
mugs, etc etc etc. And, we made a bloody fortune licensing it to
them. But, all these products were unrelated to our business. If
someone were to have modeled our actual product (which rarely
happened, it wasn't that kind of thing) we would not have charged the
fee and been pleased to have the free advertising.
There is NO comparison to a UP logo on a baseball cap vs a model
Union Pacific locomotive. None. The UP marketing types are
collecting it just because they can. There is no other reason. If
they fear loss of control of the image and marks, and believe they
MUST license them to protect them, they can easily do so at no
charge. A license does not require a fee. A Kato F3 set in UP costs
$5 more than the Santa Fe. This is hardly an "incidental fee".
I know that many model railroaders are connected to the real rail
business as well. If I was a transportation purchasing agent, I
would be telling my UP sales rep that effective imeediately I was
expecting a 10% additional discount for the privallege of UP being
allowed to transport our XYZ brand widgets. If he didn't like it,
then I would call BNSF. Actually, I would probably already be
shipping BNSF anyway.
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