UP sues MTH

[baldwinjl]

Andrew, that's right, I think. It is not about the money to UP. They believe that they need to protect their trademark. It's not so clear why they need to protect the fallen, but there might actually be reasons, and I sure don't know them. The only real issue that a court would have to decide if it got that far (in my absolutely non-legally educated opinion) is whether they did not protect it for long enough for it to become effectively pupblic domain. But we'll probably never find out because it will cost too much to get to that point.

Jeff

 

[matt fisher]

union pacific has gone to dam far ,they were did'nt care 30 years ago if any one used they logo , and neither did any other railroad like sp,wp,mp,mkt,drgw,ssw, not even chessie ,southern rr , norfolk southern and today you dont see bnsf or csx , cp or alaska rr sueing everyone and every body . if all manufactures said were not going to paint any models in up colors and left undec and told modelrailroaders to paint them selves then they woul'nt have to worry about being sued by up ,but by ge or emd. all us railfans should stand up wright UP a telling basiclly back of on athern ,walthers and many more and all we can hope for is for someone else to by out union paicific would'nt that be great? Baltimore &ohio tried this and it to back fired on them with the public model railroaders railfans employees , with all that pressure and bad publicity they said forget it's not worth sueing model train manufacters.

matt fisher

 

[eightyeightfan1]

Actually, A couple of years ago, UP tried to sue a MR manufacturer because they were using a logo from a railroad that the UP bought, and was merged. They lost that one because the court said that since the company does'nt exsist anymore, the logo was defunct and the manufacturer had all the right to use it.
Why do you think the UP is painting their brand new SD-70ACe's in what they call "Heritage" themes?

 

[ross31r]

UP is just another corporate bully.

Hopefully they will take on a manufacturer who will refuse to back down and they will be put firmly in thier place.

 

[Dave Flinn]

I've never done it, but it can't be all that hard. I'd like to buy the kit and try it for S&Gs. I don't find too many NYNH&H cars with the OLD logo, not the Mcginnis era orange and black scheme, so I'm inclined to try it.

If you're into NYNH&H, you should check out the NHRHTA Forum at http://pub97.ezboard.com/bthenhrhtanewhavenrailroadforum. There has been some discussion there of what the status of the fallen flag NH logo is, and apparently NHRHTA owns it and there is no problem with modelers using it.

I'm an NH fan, and welcome others. It's nice to know we're out there.

 

[green_elite_cab]

Atlas was one of the first to cave. Athearn, et al . . . even Walthers in their catalogues are very careful to delineate "licensed" usage. The part that probably galls me the most, of course, is UP's (and CSX's) application of this licensing requirement to the "fallen-flag" railroads they've absorbed. Which should send the modeler of even the most "defunct" railroad scurrying through corporate histories to make sure that his or her favorite dead carrier isn't still, in fact, "alive" through the magic of UP's "Heritage" program . . .

-- Paul

I hope that never happens to Conrail. then again, NS partly owns Conrail, and Conrail is still techincally its own railroad, so i don't think CSX could do that. being a Conrail Modeler, it would annoy me to have to spend extra. i'm always that one or two dollars short.

 

[brakie]

Guys,I am sure NS,BNSF,KCS and the other railroads will join in on the licensing fees and no doubt the short lines and regionals will follow suit.Sadly its the signs of the times.Not corporate greed as much as many claim and swear but,the misuse by some so called gag custom painters to Internet abuse.Remember those Erie Lackof****** cars on E-bay or the Cheap & Ornery? Then how about the UP car that I would repeat on this forum? I suppose that the railroads is suppose to endure that type of trash with their trade marks because they are corporate bandits if they raise to meet that threat to their image and demand a licensing fee and proof of a good image? Is that asking to much? I think not.After all UPS,McDonalds,Coke,PEPSICO,NASCAR,NFL,MLB and several others are very protective of their image and trade marks and all but UPS has strict copyrights and licensing fees..UPS doesn't allow any copyright or image reproduction