What's going on here is greed, pure and simple.

Several model manufacturers, of kits mostly, have ceased production of certain models which were based on historical US military aircraft.

Quoted below is the response I received over a year ago from the head land shark at Lockheed-Martin, regarding their new aggressive approach to model makers and royalties.

In the original exchange, the LM response preceeds my original query - I've put the query first, so the exchange reads the way it would if it had all been posted here. Except for the sequence, nothing else has been changed.

My original query was addressed to Gilda Barrett in the Lockheed Corporate Ethics Office; I thought that was rather fitting.

At the time of the below-quoted exchange, Lockheed-Martin corporate web site had a small entry in the historical chronology of Lockheed concerning the P-38 Lightning, but there was no photo of the aircraft. In the interim LM have added a link to a new page regarding the P-38. There _still_ is no photograph of the P-38 on the home page for the 1930s.

In the LM response, note that the company's position regarding royalties from model kit makers has to do with >trademarks<, not data or images or copyrights, but trademarks. Also note the category under which the trademarks were obtained - scale model airplanes.

I never know Lockheed produced scale model airplanes for sale.

It is my understanding, albeit informal, that other military contractors are following the LM pattern.

If the trend keeps up we may well find that there are no commercially available model kits depicting any current or former military aircraft, vessel, or vehicle. Sans intervention by Congress, scale modeling in the U.S. may well become a thing of the past except for those very few who can design and build scale models, starting from a blank page.

Did I say greed ? As in, Lockheed never sold scale models of a P-38, but they "bought" a trademark for scale models of the P-38 ?

Some sixty-odd years after production of the P-38 ceased, Lockheed decided they should have a trademark licensing program (read : demand royalties from the toy industry).

If that isn't pure and simple greed I don't know what is.



Read for yourself :

Quote:

-----Original Message-----
From: Fred McClellan [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 6:03 PM
To: Barrett, Gilda I
Subject: Copyright infringement ?

Ms. Barrett -
I understand the need to protect industrial data, copyrights, and other
proprietary information. All of us own companies or work for companies,
except for the lucky few who were born with the proverbial silver spoon
. . . What I don't understand is why in the world Lockheed would
suddenly become aggressive seeking royalty payments from small companies
which produce model airplane kits depicting 50+ year old WW II fighter
aircraft which were produced under contract for the US Government. This
link is germane : http://www.djaerotech.com/index1.html
A concerned aeromodeler . . .
Cheers,
Fred McClellan
Life Member, AMA and IMAA
Leader Member, AMA
http://home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber




Dear Mr. McClellan - Your e-mail to Gilda Barrett was forwarded to my
office for response.

We appreciate the interest and support of modelers such as yourself who
make accurate replicas of our current and historical aircraft. Let me
attempt to explain Lockheed Martin's position on protecting our marks.

As you know, through various mergers and acquisitions, Lockheed Martin's
aircraft roots go back to Lockheed, Martin Aircraft Company and others.
The marks "Lockheed" and "Lockheed Martin", together with the marks
associated with both our current and historical aircraft are valuable
assets of our Corporation that reflect on our reputation as an aircraft
manufacturer. The Lockheed P-38 is one of our most famous marks.
Because of its excellent performance and capabilities, it has become
inextricably linked to the history of Lockheed and it continues to
provide considerable good will to our Corporation. The United States
Patent and Trademark Office granted Lockheed Martin trademark
registrations for "P-38 LIGHTNING" (Reg. No. 2,610,669 in Class 28 Scale
Model Airplanes) and "P-38J LIGHTNING" (Reg. No. 2,627,837 in Class 28
for Scale Model Airplanes), acknowledging Lockheed Martin's ownership of
the mark. Even though an aircraft may have been developed for the
Government, the trademark rights, including trademark rights in
replicas, are owned by the aircraft manufacturer as the "source of the
goods."

We promote use of our marks by modelers, toy makers and other
merchandisers, but at the same time, we want the merchandise associated
with our marks to be safe, manufactured to high standards of quality and
accuracy, and not disparage our Corporation or our Government customers.
The trademark laws and rulings by courts are quite specific that in
order for trademark owners to maintain control of their marks and stop
misuse by others, such use must be under a trademark license.
Permitting unlicensed use of trademarks can lead to the trademark owner
losing its rights in the marks and the marks becoming generic. Some of
the classic examples of marks becoming generic are "cellophane",
"aspirin" and "thermos".

For the above reasons, Lockheed Martin has had an active trademark
licensing program since 1996. We have many licensees, both large and
small. There are costs involved in maintaining trademark registrations
and administering the licensing program, and we ask the licensees to pay
a reasonable fee. We have been very conscious of keeping the fees as
low as possible for small companies, such as DJ Aerotech. I will not
address the specifics contained in the link you point to below, other
than to say we respect a licensee's decision not to renew its license.

Hopefully, this has answered your question. Thank you for your
interest.

Patrick Hogan
Vice President and Associate General Counsel
Intellectual Property & Technology Law
Lockheed Martin Corporation


Close quote.