legality of after market replacement parts
 

I have seen web sites that offer replacement parts to other manufacturer's kits, such as fiberglass cowlings and foam wing cores. Are their and legal problems to this, is seems like this would be a patent infringement.

RE: legality of after market replacement parts
 

Oops that should have been:

Are their ANY legal problems

RE: legality of after market replacement parts
 

You mean NAPA can't make auto parts.

RE: legality of after market replacement parts
 

I can not imagine that any manufacturer or reseller would find that approach beneficial to the industry. But then again I am no lawyer.
JEB[&o]

RE: legality of after market replacement parts
 

There are hundreds of companies building replacement, and updated parts for current, and past products from other manfactures. Have been since the hobby began. As long products are not being copied, there are no problems.

RE: legality of after market replacement parts
 

And there are many that say copyright, but the company didn't spend the money to actually patent them, so they probably can't do anything legally about it anyway. How many versions of the stik are there? They are all almost identical.

RE: legality of after market replacement parts
 

I'm glad to announce that NAPA can now sell oil filters for Saturns. For years now, I have had to drive nearly an hour to the dealer to buy filters. Some companies do license others to make and sell replacement parts and some compaines do not. I believe the term used is proprietary. That is to say they do not allow anyone else to make or sell parts for their products.
But this can be viewed as a negative by the consumer. I know I viewed it negatively. Why would I buy a car that doesn't allow parts to be readily available nearby ?
I believe that it is just good business sense to allow others to support your products. It makes your product more appealing to the consumer. Most model manufactures realize this. And now Staturn does also.
Some businesses actually charge a licensing fee, but I seriously doubt that model manufactures charge a fee. And as someone mentioned, a slight change in dimension here and there sometimes circumnavigates the issue.

RE: legality of after market replacement parts
 

Copyrights are just as legally enforceable as patents. They are simply different. For example, the composition of a drug from pharmaceutical company is patented, while the design and use of the company's logo and any unique brand names, etc. are copyrighted and/or trademarked. Other examples of legally enforceable copyrights are books, which if copied without proper permission could result in legal action against the copier, or the movies on VHS or DVD - ever read the warning at the beginning of one?

With regard to the parts issue, many kit manufacturers use parts from other suppliers - such as cowls and wheel pants, canopies, etc. In other cases the kit manfacturer recommends such parts from another company - such as Fiberglass Specialties - and in still other cases the kit maker does both; supplies a part - say an ABS cowl - and suggests that the builder use another company's parts if they want fiberglass parts.

Some full scale plane makers - those that build military planes - have sued or threatened to sue - model manufacturers for copyright infringement and attempted to charge licensing fees, which has resulted in House Bill 4806 “Military Toy Replica Act”, which is undergoing review by the House Armed Services Committee (or was undergoing this review the last time I checked) and which would “…prohibit defense contractors from requiring licenses or fees for use of military likenesses and designations” on such articles as models and other toys. I suggest that all write your congressmen regarding this as I have done.

RE: legality of after market replacement parts
 

Patents aside, it is legal to sell parts that will fit someone else's product. It is not legal to do so and say that it is OEM, or label it with the original manufacturer's name.

Bedford

RE: legality of after market replacement parts
 

Correct.
99% of these items are made for the scale market anyway.
A spinner, cowl etc that fits a model built from a plan or kit.
You can't patent a miniture copy of a full sized plane, thus an part can be produced.
A 6th scale Mustang cowl, that fits a Brain Taylor P51 for example. Nothing anyone can do about it ...and thats just as it should be.
Replacement parts for any airplane, just the same story.
Complete set of foam wings and stabs. Perfect fit for a H9 ShowTime. Take me to court on that one and you'll loose.
...unless the H9 ShowTime has a specially designed/invented and PATENTED aerofoil. Then they'd have a case.
Taking out a patent is a very complex, costly and time consuming process that in the majority of the cases ends with no patent being granted.
While most companies know that the application will eventually be turned down, they are given some public protection by writting "Patent Pending"
You see that mentioned all the time.
Patent Pending means nothing more than it's pending a successful application.
Thus it isn't anyform of protection untill the pllication is approved and the patent granted.
Untill them. Fell free to copy any Patent Pending that comes your way.

RE: legality of after market replacement parts
 

Perhaps in Norway, but over here patents are not that difficult to get and you can be found guilty of patent infringement going all the way back to when a notation of the invention was made in a lab book, a letter mailed to yourself (shows the date of the invention by the postmark), etc. Patent Pending means that the patent application is underway and puts one on notice that infringement may result in fines, etc.