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Elite Veteran
Posts: 750
  
Location: kansas city, mo. | does chrysler/daimler still retain patents or exclusive rights to create parts for the forwardlook stuff? if so, do they demand a licensing agreement to reproduce a 50 year old part? i am assuming that as long as you do not use a factory part number or logo, or imply that a part that is repopped is an original, that one could make anything he/she wants. mike in k.c. oh, and i'm drinkin' beer tonight! tastes yummy!
Edited by ilikedodge 2006-04-13 8:51 PM
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Wise Old Village Idiot
Posts: 3591
 
Location: Dellslow, West ("By God") Virginia ! | Let me awnser your question, 'with' a question!
How, many re-poped '57 MoPar anything, parts, do you see, or have axcess to, or would like to buy, out there?
Compaired to anything (other makes) else that is '57?
Ask Clay Wood if the jack booted DC infringment lawyers are kind, in letting him make T-SHIRTS! NOT parts!
Ask the guy that had "Jeeps" A truck stop, restrurant, gas station, whore house, blacksmith shop, etc, out in MO (I think)
They drug him into court because his nick name was Jeep, and he couldn't use that name because of copyright infringment. He actually prooved in court his father gave him that name after Popeye's Jeep. Long before the 4 X4 Jeep was ever thought of!
He went bankrupt paying for his lawyers fees.
The people running Carlisle, must pay DC a huge % of the prifits just to be able to use the word Chrysler!
Ford offers parts, hats, banners, even HELP! For FREE!
GM doesn't charge Carlisle Productions to use their name(s). Except for the Corvette show. Then, it's a measley 5%
DC does NOT want you to live in the past. They want you to forget about the older vehicles, and go keep buying new Chryslers!
That is what they told Clay Wood!
How many re-poped MoPar anything, Cuda Road Runners, etc, do you see?
A '69 Camero guy, and a '70 Mach 1 guy, can walk into Carisle and walk out with practily a NEW car in re-poped parts for around ten grand!
A '70 Cuda guy has to spend 20 grand and get half of the parts the others get.
Re-poped forwardlook parts,,,,,,,, only in your dreams, only in your dreams!!
George Laury, down under, can re-pop some fwdlk parts, because he is in a 'furin' country.
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 750
Location: kansas city, mo. | so, does that mean that it cannot legally be done? would anyone really care, or even find out if one or some of us repopped a few impossible to find parts? i'm not talkin' hemi engines or cuda taillights, i'm talkin' the equivelant to mear trinkets by chebbie/dorf standards. there is a need for this stuff. not on the level of 55-57 chebbie stuff, but a real need for "our" parts. i have something in the works right now, and do not want to go into detail at this point but the hell with it, i'm doin' it!!! i personally do not believe chryco/daimler gives a rats ass if i repop a few items. hell, whats wrong with the forwardlook community? why haven't they(we) attempted to fill the huge gap in the lack of aftermarket parts for these cars? it seems that we are satisfied with overpaying at the bay, and in the process let the aftermarket pass us by!!! i am going to do something about it, small albeit, but something!!! this stuff takes thousands of dollars to reproduce, but over the long haul it will work out in the end! am i an a**hole for suggesting that we are not doing enough for our own beloved chryco cars? i doubt if jay leno, chip foose, or bill gates cares if our aftermarket catches up! it should be the owners, and the lovers of our cars that fix the problem and not wait around until daddy warbucks makes an appearance! then again, it could be the beer talkin'! mike in k.c. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 641
Location: Evansville, WI | The reason so few parts are repopped is that, frankly, there is no demand. Compare the FL mopars to try-5 Chevies or shoebox F0rds. Clean '55/56 Plymouth grills aren't overly common(not super rare, but not common). Say someone started reproducing them. how many would they sell? Maybe a few thousand? That's nothing compaired to a '56 Chevie grill. That many parts wouldn't pay for the tooling for the stamping dies to make them.
Now, about your part. If it's a relitivly easy part to reproduce, and you don't have to invest a whole lot to make it, I'd say go for it. Make'em and sell'em on your own. Chances are the patent has expired on the part anyway. While the things 'Can cited are relevant, and show the extent DC goes to for their names, they are CURRENT uses of the DC copyrights(like the name Jeep). If you are low volume, chances are DC would never even know about it. If they did find out, you would probably first be issued a "cease and desist" order basically telling you to stop what your doing. If you don't stop and you argue with them is when lawsuits generally ensue(like the Jeep's resteraunt where the guy didnt think he should have to stop since it had nothing to do with DC).
Also, to give you some hope, they now repop '53 DeSoto grills for the custom car market. |
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Expert
Posts: 2721
Location: Minneapolis | I am certainly no ambulance-chaser, but I don't see why there would be a problem. If there was, wouldn't every single person who uses ANY of the MoPar division names to sell NOS, used or repopped parts on eBay be in trouble? Wouldn't the eBay Nazis put their goose-steppin' boot down on the sellers for using the copyrighted names of Chrysler if Chrysler had real problems with parts? Logos, yes, but parts? I suppose if you turned into a Layson's or Year One.
As mentioned, the demand must not be real evident since repopped FL parts are non-existent. I reckon if you had spent a bit of money twenty-some-years ago to manufacture some, you probably would have broke even by now. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 750
Location: kansas city, mo. | take a look at some of the parts that were made for our cars. it's not exactly nuclear science were talkin', just some channel, woven together here, a simple stamping there. again, i am not talkin' quarter panels, bumper wings, just some small stuff from a few models. kinda of a kick start to a nearly non-existant aftermarket! oh, and about cost? the small stuff still costs several thousands of dollars! i know! i am in it. but our cars do exist in fairly big numbers, not along the lines of the fairlanes, and belairs, but large enough to justify a legitimate aftermarket parts source. mike in k.c. |
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Veteran
Posts: 112
Location: Brisbane Australia | I think it is much more fun hunting swap meets and thousand mile round trips chasing elusive parts for our cars than catalogue shopping like the chev and ford ppl. I just recently finished building a 40 grand plus 55 chev coupe for a friend and almost every repopped part was crap. Either poor fitting or bad quality finish, sure they looked great when they arrived in their shiny new package and it is handy being able to get stuff with such ease but when I look at my car I can tell a story for almost all the differn't parts I have had to find, his is just a danchuk catalogue on wheels. Cheers Terry |
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Veteran
Posts: 273
Location: Los Angeles, Ca | There is a difference between a "patent" and a "trademark". A Patent is designed to protect someone from copying infringement. a person can typically apply for a "design" patent or a "utility" patent. the design patent will cover the asthetics, etc. the utility will cover a mechanism, function, etc.
Patents expire. after a patent is expired you have free reign to it. And, while a patent is in effect, you can try to get around one. I'd consult a patent attourney if you wish to go this route.
then there's a trademark. this is for names, words, etc. (I know some things have "™" or some things have "®" or "©".) Not sure what these differnces are, but they do exist.
They may even be able to trademark certain designs, too. The Jeep 7 vertical grille is trademarked. the sound of the Harley Davidson engine is protected too.
These are renewable.
If you have a product you wish to make I suggest you consult with a "patent" attourney and have them conduct a patent/ trademark search on your item first.
In the toy industry when we, for example, want to make a toy car it's advantagous to make a licensed DC car. people recognise it and it can help generate sales. this comes at the price of setting up a license agreement with DC (Joester Loria or Brand Sense Marketing, other licensing companies for other brands) and it involves giving them a guarantee ($$ up front) and a royalty on sales as wel las a contract that determines where and how long you can sell the product for. (all determined by forcasted sales projections, negotiating, etc).
If we try to make a non licensed car it has to be really, really generic. If it has anything resembling a car on the market (past or present) they can (and usually do) come after us demanding $$ or we stop production. We've had companies come after us for products that we used to make and don't currently sell anymore! It's like these companies are looking for ways to make $$. So be careful if you want to market a mopar part and not license it. Lawyers and these licensing agents look for this type of stuff.
Chances are if you're looking to replicate na old part and you sell a few here and there and as long as you aren't advertising it as an official DC part they'll leave you alone . It may not be worth their time if your'e making a little piece for a couple hundred cars. there may not be enough $$ to collect, (at most you'd likely get a threatening letter to stop or something) but if you start a restoration business and are marking/ advertising all over the place, then you'd better set up a licensed agreement of some sort.
Just my 2 cents. i hope it's helpful
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patent question
