doesnt exactly win you fans in the community you are trying to win over though does it! there not exactly doing them selves any favours! its not as if BMW are going to be selling Mini shaped magnets though is it!? they dont give 2 hoots about the classic mini! they even tried to take legal actuon against haynes! against an image that had been copyrighted by haynes for years!
Ex-editor of Miniworld magazine Monty Watkins interviewed John Yea Managing Director of BMH (British Motor Heritage Ltd) about this topic back in the Summer 2010 edition...........
Extracts from MW article below:
"John Yea of 'British Motor Heritage' (BMH) defends BMW's policy on protecting the Mini brand saying they have put a lot of effort into the BMH company when it was privatised in 2001 and facilitated the move of all classic Mini tooling to BMH with their full encouragement, permitting the continued supply of bodyshells and genuine replacement body panels and subframes. He thinks a lot of classic Mini people are being misled. BMW have a lot of respect for the Classic Mini and they have tried very hard to get their managers to understand. They are very concerned how they are perceived by the classic Mini world but the Mini brand is extremely important and must be protected against imitations. A lot of genuine parts are no longer available and people should be ashamed at some of the stuff thats out there. For example, the genuine Rover Mini subframes had a minimum number of spotwelds deemed to be safe, researched in much detail. Cheap aftermarket copies have fewer spotwelds and people need protecting from this. Part of our role is to assist BMW, Licensing is to maintain quality. The problem we have now is that an awful lot of stuff is coming in from super cheap sources. BMW lawyers are looking for abuses of the logos and the brand and legal letters are intentionally intimidating, clearly stating the rights being contravened. If you get the letter please stop selling and tell us who manufactures the products in question. Manufacturers should come to BMH to assess the quality of the product, if quality is good enough but sales very small, we would probably charge a peppercorn sum, rather than a percentage of the wholesale price. Small scale makers should come and talk to us first if quality is good."
BMW must approve use of Mini trademarks and logos, Triumph and Riley are also retained by BMW.
SAIC in China need to approve anything Austin, Morris, Wolseley and MG.
Tata in India own Land Rover and also own the Rover brand (originally bought off BMW by Ford).
BMH - Marques, Trade Marks, Copyright & Part Numbers:
http://www.bmh-ltd.c...marks-useof.htm
British Motor Heritage Limited is the licensee of a number of famous British classic car marques.
Each of these marques has a unique identity made up of outstanding qualities or values for which it is recognised and are expressed through a variety of names, emblems and other designs used for the various models which make up the history of a particular marque.
As an example, for MG there is the MG name, the famous MG Octagon badge, and model names such as MGB and Midget, whilst for Mini there is the name Mini and Mini Cooper and the shield emblem together with the wings logo and the original vehicle shape.
Edited by mab01uk, 05 February 2012 - 11:34 PM.
