warbird addict

What the hell is Red Bulls problem !
I've just completed the new h-9 sukhoi and remembered seeing some red bull graphics on one of the better known graphics places
but when I called to order was told that red bull has everybody under a cease and decist order to the point of suspicion of my call as possibly being probing as evidence of compliance, and they further wanted the names and addresses of everybody that had bought them to date so they could go after them as well which obviously didn't happen but never the less.
I also approached the local red bull rep at my local convenience store and he told me that employees of the company are not even allowed to fly the logo on company attire.
I could certainly understand Red Bulls position if somebody say in motorsports was racing and wearing their logo without official sponsorship or portraying them in an unfavorable light or marketing a similar knockoff product that cost them lost marketshare but to put the bite on ANYTHING red bull is taking proprietary greed to a whole new level I also found out , I dunno how true it is but was told by very reliable sources that H-9 designed this airframe scheme to be marketed with included/optional Red Bull graphics but "RB" also put the bite on that as well, it's pretty bad when a company is able to copyright a 2 word sentence so that nobody has use of it period unless their permission is given.
No big deal it just struck me as a total load of proprietary "Red Bulls#!t" and makes me really want to strip it and recover it so as not to be part of it and I will be sending "RB" a
nastygram expressing my, shall we say displeasure.
Don't get me wrong it's not the lack of being able to get the graphics as I can locally "but chose to support someone dedicated specificly to the hobby" but rather the principal involved when When a company like "RB" has to viciously go after all the little guy outfits cutting graphics out of their garage to make a living.
It would be different and understandable if "RB" was also marketing the same graphics but they don't, and they should LEAVE THE LITTLE GUY ALONE

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

The answer is simple. Boycott Red Bull products. See how fast they change their tune when sales drop.

outdoorhunting

Probably, somewhere at sometime a "liyer" oops, I mean a lawyer got the bright idea that they could prosecute all the "little guys" & make big bucks because the " little guys" could'nt afford to fight them on such a ridiculous thing. Isn't that one of the ways the liyers work? They'll file a ridiculous suit, drag it out to show you what they "could do" & then they will offer to " settle out of court" to keep from "dragging this out". When it was THEM that started the whole thing to begin with!!! This will probably get "deleted", but with the condition our country is in, quess who runs it? The lawyers!!!!!!

macdona

My Feedback: (3)

Yeah, but they will sell you a t-shirt for twenty bucks, meaning you can pay them to advertise for them.

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

Red Bull was founded on the principal you do what you want.

Pirate the logo, put it on your plane and Red Bull would be proud. I guarantee it.

Don't you get it?

Pirate the logo and get a wink and a pat on the back from Red Bull.


Edited: My post above comes off a little crabby. Part of my income a few years ago came from SoBe No Fear and for many years if there hadn't been Red Bull I wouldn't have been enjoying a great career. I'm not now associated with any of these companies.

As far as the original post goes, it is what it is and business is business. Red Bull, by pumping massive amounts of money into extreme sports and people pushing the limits in sport and motor sports, has literally changed the face of our culture, and it seems unfair to take them to task for evidently a business decision regarding their logo.

Grampaw

This Red Bull Post reminded me of an incident a few years back when a Scale Modeler entered his Scale Pitts with a Coca Cola Paint job, depicting a full size Pitts" color scheme that was at the time competing all over the country. A local Coca Cola person voiced some objections and he had to redo his paint job. Whatta world!

But I may have struck back at the system when I removed a Dealer's Logo from the rear of a new car I had just purchased. When I took the car in for the first Warranty Check, the Salesman, noticing the missing Logo, excused himself saying he was going to get a new one and put on my car. I stopped him and told him he could do it, if he paid me X amount of dollars each month. He looked surprised when I told him I charge for Ad Space just like newspapers do, and their Logo is Advertising. I told him that space on my car's back deck was my property if he wanted me to carry his advertising, he was going to have to pay for it. The Logo was not replaced. Bet all you guys have Dealer's Logos on your cars too...and without your permission....

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I did the same thing when I bought my house. The real estate agent put a "Sold" on his sign in the front yard of my new house. I promptly took the sign down and told him to come get his sign. He said that it's "customary" to leave the sign up for 30 days after a house sold. I told him it was my house now and if he wanted to leave his sign in my yard I would lease him the advertising space for that purpose. He came and got the sign without uttering another peep about it!!!

Ken

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

I bet he uttered something Ken. You just didn't hear it. I recently bought the wife a new ride. I had to tell them three times at the dealership not to install the front bracket for the liscense plate. It would have made four ugly holes in the front just so they could hand one of their tags on it. I told the owner on the last call. " if it's on there I wont take the car". It was in the trunk when I picked it up.

David

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

This is why I don't understand for the life of me why anybody would buy a shirt or other article of clothing that says "Tommy Hilfiger" on it (or as I call it, Tommy PullMyFinger)

macdona

My Feedback: (3)

Yeah grampaw, I did that years ago. I turned down a new car because they had drilled holes to stick their logo on. I am with you. I will not advertise for free for anyone.

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

You wouldn't wear clothing that says Tommy Hilfiger on it and neither would I, because we both probably feel wearing those clothes is a phony attempt to attain status, not to mention it's a little gay lol. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I would wear a Fox engine t-shirt or Carl Goldberg or how about the old logo Cox .049 on the front of a t-shirt. I'd wear one of those. I probably wouldn't wear a Futaba t-shirt even though I have more Futaba radios than anything else. But yeah, if you gave me a free Futaba t-shirt I'd probably wear it, but I wouldn't pay for it.

Just like I wear Vans, Ripcurl and I'd still wear wear the alligator on golf shirts and my sweatshirts have the Nike swoosh because the make good hoodies.

Logos and brands are big business. One of the issues here is that the Marketing departments of these companies and the Sales departments don't always operate with a single vision. This may be involved in this Red Bull model plane issue.

trioval00

My Feedback: (17)

I remember a story in the AMA magazine some 10 or so years ago, where a r/c pilot built a racing style mustang, did it up in yellow, #4 and the company name Kodak on the aircraft. The R/C pilot sent a picture into Kodak, he in return got a letter from the lawyers at Kodak, telling him he had a time limit to remove all Koday markings and numbers. you would think, companies would eat up free advertising.


Mark

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

The problem with a lot of that stuff is that there are legal issues (What did Shakspere say? "kill all the lawyers"?) If one company is using the logo without permission on an airplane, what's to stop someone else from using it on a garbage truck?

I remember seeing a woman in the mall and on the back of her jeans it said "Guess"

I said, "I dunno... 250 pounds?"

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

After that Minn, Did you have to "guess" if she was right or left handed?

David

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Definitely right handed [X(]

trioval00

My Feedback: (17)

I don't care who you are, NOW that's funny.........


Mark

Mike in DC

Anyone who is cutting graphics in their garage and selling them should know better than to sell copyrighted material and trademarks, no? I don't see how being little and trying to make a living exempts you from copyright and trademark laws.

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

Question for the OP - did this company ever have a licensing agreement with Red Bull? I assumed they did at one point because I assume a business is operated ethically. Evidently they never did?

Mike in DC is right, you can't legally or ethically earn money as a result of stealing a brand/logo.

But my first response still stands to the OP. Pirate your own Red Bull Graphics and put them on your plane. But don't come running to me if Red Bull makes you take them off.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Businesses are funny but it always helps to ask first.

I talked to Extreme Flight and he said "cut all you want, stick them on your car, your airplane, sell them, whatever"

Others are more protective.

Look at Textron getting all up and involved in licenseing for building scale models of Cessna planes and Bell helicopters.

I think you'll find that most small graphics cutters are "better to ask forgiveness than permission" because the worst case is usually a cease and desist or else letter.

BillyGoat

Thanks to greedy lawyers we live in a sue happy society. Just watch a half hour of local TV and you’ll hear several lawyers promising to “Get you the money you deserve”.

I believe these companies have turned this way simply to protect themselves. If someone were to put a national brand on their plane and that plane crashes and causes somebody serious harm, can almost guarantee that company will be named in a law suit.

The company obviously has no liability in the case but would still end up costing THOUSANDS in defense. So in an attempt to eliminate frivolous law suits the stand has become to control all aspects of logo distribution.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

If they disbarred any ambulance chaser that tried to file such a lawsuit it would solve a lot of problems

For the graphics guys though, I know I don't cut commerical logos without permission unless I'm making something for my own personal use.

outdoorhunting

Disbarring won't work. Guess who does the disbarring!! Other lawyers. When this country was started we needed them. Of course back then they had morels. Now Most of them don't. They make the laws ambiguous, (that keeps them in business). With the "foxes guarding the hen house" it ain't gonna get better!!!

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

I decorated my Lanier Laser with Caterpillar markings, sorta like the race car. A buddy saw that, and decorated his next plane (a Hog Bipe, as I recall) in Viagra markings, like the Viagra race car.

A spectator was asking one day, "How long can you fly that?" and one of the newer club members spoke up "If it's up longer than 4 hours, you should consult a physician immediately."

Dave Olson

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

LOL! Those Viagra commercials are some of the most annoying commercials in history.

I crashed a little fun electric Sunday. I could have put Red Bull on there in the spirit of this thread, but I went with Woodstock.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I'm down here in Florida covering Top Gun for RCU. There is a nationally know energy drink company (I don't want to say there name, so let's just say Crimson Male Bovine Animal) down here handing our product in the crowd for the event. Because of all of the problems stated in this thread I was VERY careful to try not get any of there product logos in my pictures. Unfortunately I accidentally took a picture of some of there equipment on site. I hope my photoshop work here will keep me from any legal entanglements that might result from this.

I guess I'll have to more careful tomorrow and not accidentally get these images again.

Ken