R22 Discussion Group

The O'Day molds went to China or Korea or one of those country's.  Really.

Rummy

In a message dated 11/6/2009 2:13:26 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
dculp at hsbtx.com writes:

Stan:

I think you would be better off to use a boat that is  out of production and
the company no longer in business.  That way,  only the owner of the design
who probably has the molds (if there are any)  might be interested in suing
you.  In fact, if the molds are  nonexistent, I think that would be even
better.   In any case,  they will be poorly organized, not very interested
and the success of  litigation against you would probably be very low.   You
would be  merely adding to an existing boat that is not being built  any
longer.

On the other hand and playing the devil's advocate, if I  am Catalina:  You
are taking my design on a boat still in production  and tearing it down,
rebuilding and then marketing it to the public as a  "Catalina".  You are
trading on my reputation, infringing my trademark  and adding confusion in
the eyes of the consumer.  You may also  infringe on my patents 
inadvertently
in the process of making the  improvements you propose.  Even if I can't win
on those arguments-the  Rhodes 22 is a better 22' boat then we build, but we
have deeper pockets;  and wouldn't we like to put GBI out of business on
legal issues instead of  having to compete?  Others have talked about 
success
stories with  Shelby, Ram converted Cessnas, etc. and close to home-Dee
Howard  modifications to Learjets were world renown.  I think the  
difference
is that these folks sold an after-market conversion to private  owners but
were not a direct competitor in the business.  In other  words, they didn't
have a factory capable of producing new cars or new  airplanes and if memory
serves, even though they added value and charged  for it, they didn't market
the finished products.  I think if Ford  said we will take a Chevy make it
better and then re-market it, there would  be some problems.  I think a big
company would rather try and squash  the little guy then overlook or condone
them building a better mouse trap  with their product and then marketing
it-especially in this  environment.  In their mind, every recycled Catalina
you sold, is a  customer who didn't buy a boat from them though I think that
is an apples  and oranges comparison.... Still, it looks good in a pleading.

I am on  marriage #3 which proves that I'm not a very good businessman but
very well  acquainted with lawyers, so I just don't see the return on
investment/risk  on a project like this.  Wouldn't you be better off in
trying to  become the best sailboat repair and modification shop on the east
coast  using the assets that you already have?   Customer supplied boats  
that
you merely repair or modify and are not resold; like Dee Howard did  for
aircraft all those years in San Antonio.  Obviously the margins  are not 
near
as good, but less risk and steady work might keep things going  until the
tide rolls back in.

I am not a lawyer and don't play one  on TV.

Regards,
David

Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009  13:16:59 -0500
From: "stan" <stan at rhodes22.com>
Subject:  [Rhodes22-list] advice needed from litigious Rhodies
To: "The Rhodes 22  mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Message-ID:  <3E593F37DE3A427AB2EC4E7907A5120A at rhodes>
Content-Type:  text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

last time  things got bad, to broaden our price marking base  we went  into
recycling Rhodes

this time, to broaden our base and not keep  losing those prospects who want
a little bit bigger boat (since no Rhodes  took us up on the Rhodes 27
projected) we bought a Catalina 25 and have  torn it apart.   we are going 
to
try and make it into a  Catalina-Rhodes hybrid:   IMF, combo keel/cb,
electric tilting  motor lift, etc.

it is being sold as a used Catalina 25 that we have  recycled and upgraded.
Can Frank butler (he owns Catalina) legally  complain?

ss

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