Official license of car models

[rick916]

Hi experts,

I'm new to this forum. Recently me and a group of friends is thinking to make some new 1/24 model car kits for business as we're pretty sad to see that the big model brands is narrowing our choices of car models and make this hobby fading out!

Our goal is to make some kits that you guys commonly thought: "I want that car become a model kit!"

However, we're not sure how should we start with. We have our sculptors, machining equippments, decal and PE vendors, and also casting tools. But the only thing we don't know is how to get an official license approval from car brands, and how to deal with them on this issue.

Or maybe someone would suggest us to make some small run of production without officical approval? Then what about legal problem?

Hope there's some experienced friends here share to their opinion!

Thank you!!

Rick

[rockinanko]

Hi & welcome to AF! sorry i'm no expert but i would like to share my views on this. good! i've been wondering who's the first person to ask such a question if there ever will be...

true, model choices are getting limited each day, so fustrated that i have to take an alternative to scratchbuild models out from existing kits. but my success rate is very slim as of now...

from what i know about copyright law, a creator of a particular design / item can endorse it through these approaches from being copied or infringed. but there's a limit on the time the copyright to be sustained, i believe it's due for renewal of every 7 years or thereafter. so unless the creator choose to continue this protection, the item /design will be in 'public domain' should he gives up renewing.

let's take a look at ferrari. do you notice those older ferrari kits from small wheels, Q-model, southern finecast kits do not bear the licensing labels & yet they still circulate in the market abeit in small quantities? ferrari was not interested in such a small scale royalty back then.

only until recently did ferrari up their copyright / registered protection so much, that big players like tamiya to small makers like studio27 pay licensing fees to ferrari SPA for creating ferraris kits.

that is i presume, these makers copied exactly everything from the real ferrari & sell them outright as a 'ferrari' product & using the ferrari logo. the fees now are not cheap, trust me...

but i see a loop hole, that is...if you be able to produce a transkit in such a way a donor kit is needed to be complete & include no logos, then you have a strong case to urgue over the copyright issue.

the recent example of such a product is the MSM ferrari F50GT resin kit. the body consist about 60% of the real car...but they included ferrari logos. that may have been the reason why it stopped abruptly after selling out a small quantity...

remember, as long as your product appears to be different (novelty) from whoever's design / item...you can copyright it under your own brand too! if copyright is thought by a human, then it take a human too, to undo it...

i can only share this much with you online, PM me if you wanna know more or asking sensitive questions pertaining. i also hope if there's someone in the law fields can provide some copyright advises on this issue.

cheers!

[JTninja]

Good luck guys! Ive been hoping to model enthusiest would start producing some unmade models liek the new M3s or Astons...

[KevHw]

Oh man, whoever can, please make the Alpha Romeo 8C! A couple of choices of Aston Martin would be nice too considering the very pricey alternatives.

As for you guys asking for the license approval, even if you do get them, I don't expect it to be very cheap...considering you'd effectively be in competition with Tamiya etc. You would more than likely need to be set-up as a business, have enough cash to buy the licensing and pay large amounts for royalties.

I don't know much about it...my main point was to shout out about the 8C...

[geckoman1220]

good luck also, you should make a ...

- 2006+ Honda Civic SI coupe
- 2008+ Subaru Impreza WRX STI
- 2008+ Dodge Challenger SRT8

[bizzychris]

Lexus IS-F, please!!

[MPWR]

Oh god- do we have to have another thread full of "please make my favoritest car!!" suggestions?

I have heard it rumored (and I do not know how to verify this) that with a limited production run (maybe 200 kits?), licensing issues can be skirted. This is apparently how multimedia manufacturers like S27 or MFH can make kits that they almost definitely couldn't afford the licenses for.

Really, this is a question for a copyright lawyer- and we have few if any of them here.