[Maltese]

It is great to see new bodies coming out and new cars altogether. Are all of these new companies negotiating licensing deals with GM, Ford, Porsche, Ferrari? Are these companies just waiting to sue??

I would not mind producing some cars or other such thing perhaps for sale, but I wonder at what point do you need licenses and who one would contact for that.

-Maltese

 

[Scott B]

Each company will have a licensing department or agent, usually affiliated to the legal department for obvious reasons.

If you want to stay legal, then you need approval from unit one, if you are selling them. Not so clear on things you might give away to friends.

Scott

 

[astro]

An added related question -

if you wanted to make and sell a slot car of say a historic ford covered with sponsors of ferod, pirrelli, castrol and whoever else, raced by say the Wyer team, do you need to get licence from Ford, Ferod, Pirelli, castrol and the wyer team? or just ford?

 

[Scott B]

All, in theory, unless the team had/has an agreement to cover it off as one.

Not sure how far back the rights apply (i.e. for books, plays, etc it is 50 years, I think - I guess it depends if the company still exists or still protects its rights).

For PC games, championships usually demand that all teams entering sign over the rights to them to make negotiations with developers easier, Which is what I understand Hornby did with Moto GP.

When I worked at Cosworth we just asked for some samples - hence my extensive collection of Escort Cosworths! - but these days I happily pass all request on to the lawyers in Brussels.

Scott