I probably should know the answer to this, but
we might want to put our collective wisdom to work here. We are a railroad
museum with an operating railroad as a part of our facilities. Many of the
various cars and locomotives we have are lettered as they were when they worked
the general railroad system of North America, and as historic artifacts, that is
exactly as they should be lettered for historic accuracy. Most of the
railroads shown on these cars are long gone, either abandoned or absorbed into
much larger railroad systems. If the trademark holders on the various
heralds (logos to non-railroaders) and company names do still exist, the
fact the cars are now in a museum, not used for commercial purposes, obviates
any issues there, unless...
We are working with a production company now
shooting parts of the pilot of a potential television series on our
railroad. Assuming the pilot sells to a network, the railroad will be a
recurring location throughout the series. One of the principal pieces of
equipment to be used in the series is a caboose lettered for a still-existing
railroad and the lettering, including the corporate slogan they still
use, will be visible and readable in many of the shots. This railroad
no longer uses cabooses at all, and indeed was the donor of the car when it came
to us.
The question here is obvious. Do we have
any trademark liability with that lettering visible? Has anyone else ever
encountered this situation? Of course, we can go to a very good trademarks
and patents attorney we know in the area and spend a pile of money to find out
we never needed to be concerned in the first place, but before we do that I am
curious what the group here has to say. Thanks in advance for your
help.
Best
Regards,
Bob
R.T.Crowley - Curator of History, NC Railroad Museum
North Carolina Railway
Museum
Post Office Box
40
New Hill, NC 27562
New Hope Valley
Railway
5121 Daisey
Street
Bonsal, NC 27562-9009
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