Russ,
If you're just catching wind of this stench in the hobby industry, then you are a couple of years behind the times.
Brenda ("don't blame me, I'm just the messenger") Mainwaring has been put at the head of the Railfan Shakedown Squad at UP.
What's happening? Well... it seems that somebody at UP got it into their head that the railfan industry would be good for millions of dollars in "License fees". So the UP took the approach that if it says "UP", we want a cut. This is not unusual in corporate America, Ford, the NFL, NBA Pro Baseball, VW (did I say America?), GM, et. al., all charge licensing fees.
I agree with UP that it has the right to protect its shield and "Bilking America" slogan from unauthorized use. They have also been very scrupulous over the years by using te "Overland Route" logo on a certain portion of their equipment.
Here's where the rub comes in... The UP has allowed the copyrights for the logos of the CNW, MP, WP and other of their predecessors to lapse. In spite of this, they are still trying to shake down the Hobby industry (both Railfan and Model) for tribute payments in spite of the fact that these logos have become part of the Public Domain. They have even gone so far as to try to re-copyright the old Predecessor logos to themselves, and are claiming that they don't care about Copyright law, they'll go after the "violators" anyway.
They have said that they will just beat their opposition to death with dollar bills. They are even ignoring their own previous permission to use the UP logo to Lionel, which claims to have a letter on file from William Jeffers (from the 1930's) granting them Carte Blanche use of the UP logo on their products.
Beside the two that are suing UP that you mentioned, Kadee Quality Products has also refused to kotow to Omaha and render unto Caesar what Caesar thinks he deserves.
What the UP doesn't realize is that the Railroad souvenir and hobby industry is mainly made up of a bunch of Mom and Pop shops who are working on very slim margins and don't have the time or manpower to comply with UP's Bullshit. Some Major Players, Athearn, Marklin, and some others have knuckled under rather than fight.
Can this affect the Rio Grande fans? The answer is most definitely YES! Can this also affect the South Park Fans? The UP has all ready tried. The UP did fail, from what I understand, to successfully shake down somebody using the old D&RG "Bug" or "Toilet Seat" logos.
The ultimate to all this started yesterday. The UP is painting some units in what they term their "Heritage" schemes. The WP and MP versions were unveiled yesterday. They claim it is celebrating their history. I claim that they are for displaying in court.
Rick
