08-23-2010, 10:52 AM
Thanks Bil.
You said exactly what I was trying to say, but your explanation was a lot clearer! I did not realize the difference between copyright, and patent. I thought patents were issued only for new inventions, and that design came under copyright law. I am also a car nut, and have noticed that Ferrari is very protective of their designs including or I should say especially their "styling" and trademarks. The kit car industry loves to clone Ferrari models on various less expensive chassis. The 250GT California Spider, Ferrari Daytona, and the 250GTO are especially popular. The newest of these cars was last built in @1972 or 73, yet Ferrari has still successfully gone after companies for cloning these car bodies. Carroll Shelby tried to do the same thing for the Cobra kits, but the court ruled that the body design belonged to AC Cars of the U.K., and the Cobra name and logo was sold to Ford, so Shelby had no case.
U.P. has been doing the same thing to model manufacturers regarding their trademarks including enforcing trademark infringement for all of the fallen flags that they have purchased and phased out. The court ruled that since U.P. was not using any of the trade marked "fallen flag" paint schemes and names that they had no case. Was it just coincidence that they came out with all of those heritage paint schemes right after the court handed down it's ruling?
You said exactly what I was trying to say, but your explanation was a lot clearer! I did not realize the difference between copyright, and patent. I thought patents were issued only for new inventions, and that design came under copyright law. I am also a car nut, and have noticed that Ferrari is very protective of their designs including or I should say especially their "styling" and trademarks. The kit car industry loves to clone Ferrari models on various less expensive chassis. The 250GT California Spider, Ferrari Daytona, and the 250GTO are especially popular. The newest of these cars was last built in @1972 or 73, yet Ferrari has still successfully gone after companies for cloning these car bodies. Carroll Shelby tried to do the same thing for the Cobra kits, but the court ruled that the body design belonged to AC Cars of the U.K., and the Cobra name and logo was sold to Ford, so Shelby had no case.
U.P. has been doing the same thing to model manufacturers regarding their trademarks including enforcing trademark infringement for all of the fallen flags that they have purchased and phased out. The court ruled that since U.P. was not using any of the trade marked "fallen flag" paint schemes and names that they had no case. Was it just coincidence that they came out with all of those heritage paint schemes right after the court handed down it's ruling?