A way to get around licensing?

[Oldcarfan27]

Since Round 2 can't ever reissue anything Dukes of Hazzard because of Political Correctness and Warner Bros pulling the licensing, I got to thinking -

Would there be any legal ramifications if they issued the Charger as "Good Ol' Boys" 69 Charger? They could include the 2 sets of numbers 01235 in block shape, blue racing stripes with white stars on it, a big red box with a white border - about the size of the roof (for racing numbers in it, right? Wink, Wink ??) and a sponsor "GENERAL FLEET" to put next to the red box on the roof.

Or the Monaco could be called "Corrupt Southern Law Enforcement Officer". With door badges that DON'T say anything about Hazzard in them. Just letters nearby on the decal sheet that say "HAGGARD COUNTY,  ZZ".

The Jeep is easy, just issue it as a Jeep Golden Eagle with nicknames on the decal sheet. "Trixie", "Pixie", "Flixie" or some other name?

I really want to see the tow truck again, even if it's called "Hillbilly Tow Truck" with special decals for optional small town garages.

I remember some old MPC Firebirds and Indy Pace Cars where they didn't have licensing to use Trans Am, so they just put the letters all mixed up on the decal sheet - creative builders knew what to do with them.

Their idea could still work today on lots of other projects. 

Thoughts?

[iamsuperdan]

PArdon me if this is common knowledge, but wasn't the licensing removed by Round2 or whoever? Too much controversy surrounding a certain roof decal?

I didn't realize they lost the licensing for all of the other Dukes branded kits too.

Does this mean I can sell the decals from my DOH police car for a huge profit? I won't be using them so.... lolz.

 

 

[martinfan5]

There really is no point in doing another reissue of the GL or the Rosco's Monaco, there is no shortage of the kits and I don't think there ever will be. 

But yes, you do bring up a very inserting topic, shirting licensing ,  Academy with the Ferrari 250 GT kit, calling it a "European Classic Car"

 

Edited January 7, 2020 by martinfan5

[1972coronet]

You're on to something for sure . This is something that I've thought about for a long time regarding Revell / Monogram kits , and their shying-away from -- to the extent of revising tooling -- employing Good Year or Firestone on their kits' tyres . 

My thought is this : Why not purposely misspell those names ? How about -- on sidewall engravings -- something like G00D YE4R  or F1REST0NE ? Doubtful that anyone would look closely enough to pick out the "0" in place of the letter "O" , or the "4" in-place of the "A" , etc. 

[Oldcarfan27]

2 minutes ago, iamsuperdan said:

PArdon me if this is common knowledge, but wasn't the licensing removed by Round2 or whoever? Too much controversy surrounding a certain roof decal?

I didn't realize they lost the licensing for all of the other Dukes branded kits too.

From what I read, Warner Bros pulled all licensing when the whole Confederate flag fiasco came about. So no more "Dukes" anywhere. 

[Oldcarfan27]

1 minute ago, 1972coronet said:

You're on to something for sure . This is something that I've thought about for a long time regarding Revell / Monogram kits , and their shying-away from -- to the extent of revising tooling -- employing Good Year or Firestone on their kits' tyres . 

My thought is this : Why not purposely misspell those names ? How about -- on sidewall engravings -- something like G00D YE4R  or F1REST0NE ? Doubtful that anyone would look closely enough to pick out the "0" in place of the letter "O" , or the "4" in-place of the "A" , etc. 

I didn't know that there was a licensing problem from tire manufacturers, plus they could leave the engraving off if it is really an issue.

My suggestion is to just leave everything you need on the decal sheet and we can fix the offensive items ourselves!

[Oldcarfan27]

8 minutes ago, martinfan5 said:

Academy with the Ferrari 250 GT kit, calling it a "European Classic Car"

Hasegawa has done just that by calling their Cadillac kit a "type C", and Impala a "type I", Bonneville a "type P".

Simple as that.

[Bucky]

6 minutes ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Hasegawa has done just that by calling their Cadillac kit a "type C", and Impala a "type I", Bonneville a "type P".

Simple as that.

I noticed that last week when cruising thru what eBay had to offer. And, they tossed in a scantily clad scale sized lady, in case you needed some purchase incentive!

[DukeE]

A facsimile of the design is unacceptable in court. Some "jeep-lookalike" thing just got nailed in last few weeks. Appel computers ain't gonna fly. If GM really wanted to, they could grind Hase under their boot. Takes a long time to build a brand. You let one thing pass undefended, and more come. You can lose the brand copyright at some point. Same holds for music, etc. Rearranging letters is enabling breach  of copyright. 

Think of it as ID theft. It's not a problem until it's yours. 
 

[stitchdup]

3 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

You're on to something for sure . This is something that I've thought about for a long time regarding Revell / Monogram kits , and their shying-away from -- to the extent of revising tooling -- employing Good Year or Firestone on their kits' tyres . 

My thought is this : Why not purposely misspell those names ? How about -- on sidewall engravings -- something like G00D YE4R  or F1REST0NE ? Doubtful that anyone would look closely enough to pick out the "0" in place of the letter "O" , or the "4" in-place of the "A" , etc. 

meng did gaadyears on the f350

[Bugatti Fan]

Congratulations to all the car companies bean counters. Apart from screwing up our hobby for what little they would get in royalties from a market much more limited than ready made diecasts, would it really.make any difference to the bottom line in car companies annual revenue?

[DonW]

Dave Deal had the same idea:

 

[Dave Van]

We did this with the Model King reissued MPC stock car kits. We included the decals to make 'Name' drivers but jumbled up.....the modeler just cut them up to make a real car......but we had no time or money to license 3 drivers for each kit.  It can and is done. 

[The Junkman]

Slixx has done that on several of their quarter panel/number sheets.  Look closely enough and you can see the makings for Skoal.

http://www.slixx.com/1327.htm?id=811

[High octane]

Monogram has skirted the licensing issue many years ago when they issued the Green Hornet kit which is really the Gasshopper rod on the cover of the late 50's Hot rod Magazine, and also when they issued the Slingshot Dragster which is the Cook & Bedwell dragster of the late 50's.

[iamsuperdan]

10 hours ago, DukeE said:

A facsimile of the design is unacceptable in court. Some "jeep-lookalike" thing just got nailed in last few weeks. Appel computers ain't gonna fly. If GM really wanted to, they could grind Hase under their boot. Takes a long time to build a brand. You let one thing pass undefended, and more come. You can lose the brand copyright at some point. Same holds for music, etc. Rearranging letters is enabling breach  of copyright. 

Think of it as ID theft. It's not a problem until it's yours. 
 

Country of manufacture and sale make a huge difference too. In China, there are some incredibly blatant vehicular knockoffs. But because they are manufactured in China, and only sold in China, there's nothing European or American manufacturers can do.

https://www.hotcars.com/chinese-copycats-20-cars-that-are-total-rip-offs/

For example, meet the Land Wind X7.

 

Look familiar? Let me introduce the Range Rover Evoque.

 

And there's nothing Land Rover can do about it.

 

 

The ESP guitar company makes a killer version of the Gibson Explorer. Problem is, it's a little TOO good. Gibson hit them with a lawsuit and they can no longer sell that model in North America. In Japan though, no problem.

 

I wonder if decal manufacturers have the same restrictions. Maybe in China they could produce a blatant copy with no legal repercussions. But then I guess selling in North America or Europe could generate an issue.

[DukeE]

Yeah, China really doesn't have any intellectual property recognition. Been so for decades, hence "cheap Chinese knock-offs". They've cloned iPhones, X5's, all of it. Really only place that big that does that. Sitting on exports outside China only way to fight it. So much stuff is sourced from them, because nobody will build it here, that it's necessary evil. However, the strong brands work better, cars certainly crash better. So market for real stuff still strong. 

Decals are one thing for names. IP for TV shows, music, etc. are a minefield. Roadrunner could have been a "speedy chicken", but it wasn't. Don't tick off a legal department that's larger than the staff at the model company, for which you may need further licensing. 

[wisdonm]

I don't know their reason for doing it, but the Johan Chrysler Turbine Car EZ build kit, not the full kit, has enough decals to duplicate the rally car from the movie The Lively Set, however you have to unscramble the letters to make the names correct.

Edited January 7, 2020 by wisdonm

[Dave Van]

28 minutes ago, wisdonm said:

I don't know their reason for doing it, but the Johan Chrysler Turbine Car EZ build kit, not the full kit, has enough decals to duplicate the rally car from the movie The Lively Set, however you have to unscramble the letters to make the names correct.

Yep....

 

[Atmobil]

Like others have said, this has been done many times over the years.

Italeri has done several kits with out the Brand licence.

Land Rover series 3 (Old Esci tooling)


Mack Superliner


Hummer or maybe just HMMWV

And this has been done with many other things aswell. In the 90s my sister had Adidas track pants (you know the black ones with the white stripes down each leg) but they where not real as the logo said Abidas. They had just turned a d in to a b...?

[iamsuperdan]

"Lady Butterfly?!"

Holy moly. What marketing department in their right mind sits down and thinks this is an appealing and amazing decal concept?

Just wow.

 

Lolz

 

[mchook]

They're still doing Dukes of Hazzard vehicles in diecast. Greenlight is putting out a a line of different police cars, uncle Jesse's pickup, Daisy's jeep & hopefully more in different scales. No "Dukes" writing or flags anywhere but that's what they clearly are.

https://www.3000toys.com/catalog/products.aspx?FIND=dukes&ORDER=M&MFG=GREENLIGHT&setup=

[Brian Austin]

5 hours ago, Atmobil said:

And this has been done with many other things aswell. In the 90s my sister had Adidas track pants (you know the black ones with the white stripes down each leg) but they where not real as the logo said Abidas. They had just turned a d in to a b...?

That's just plain counterfeiting. 

[Reegs]

Land Wind?

Too many deviled eggs?

[Atmobil]

Not to long ago I ordered these photoetch air-conditioners (that is my day-to-day work so I thought it could be quite funny to have some small scale once) and looks what they have done with the logos on the decal sheet:
 

 

EDIT: Just to clearify, the real names are Sampo, Daikin, Mitsubishi, Hitatchi and Fujitsu. I'm not sure about the TACO brand or the TX Taixio.

Edited January 8, 2020 by Atmobil