Hi Chris,
Good response. I asked an attorney friend about this issue and he just laughed when I told him how much money was probably involved. I will pass on a few points he made (after he stopped laughing). First, most copyrights (production rights or whatever you want to generically call them) have an expiration date and since the Arrow was originally designed in '77 or '78 and the agreement with Quality Line probably occurred in the early 80's; well, it's been at least 30 years. Second, the plans to build the airplane were published in M.A.N. in 1979 which pretty much makes them public domain from that point on. Third, the cost of litigating this issue makes the whole disagreement completely laughable.
I will just add that the Quality Line molds have been sitting around for a couple of decades not producing a kit or a dime of profit. They should be elated that they can make a few more bucks from them. Don at rcaiir can't be profit motivated - he's still in the red and creating new kits (at his expense) on a regular basis. He just loves classic pattern and we are all benefiting, otherwise we'd be beating each other up for the occasional classic kit on ebay or stuck flying the Hangar 9 Phoenix or Tower Dirty Birdy (OK there are a few other sources: Eureka, etc. but good glass kits are hard to find). Hopefully everybody can make enough money to stay happy and we can continue to have a terrific selection of classic pattern kits available.
-Will