Just dreaming about future projects (give it 10 years! ) and was wondering what the legal situation with doing replicas is.

The fact that Ferrari haven't sued the likes of Fiero etc. for their replicas (or do they do Lambos? - whatever!) suggests to me that there's not much they can do- but this seems surprising!

Also, is there a difference with doing a one off replica for yourself and producing kits?

It would seem weird if all it comes down to is whether they sold the badges with it or not which is what I've heard.


Cheers,
James
...thinking a big-engined midi would look good on the drive.....!

Bodyshape copyright runs for 15 years after the end of the original production run.

From reading various magazine articles, I believe it's as follows:

You can copy any car you like as long as you don't try and sell it as an original ("passing off" is the legal term).

So, we can build cars that look like Caterhams and Westfields but we can't be sued. However, if we advertise them as Cats or Westies, then we're in the soft and smelly. They greyest area is for replica kit manufacturers, some of whom have been successfully sued for being too close to the original.

As I said, just my opinion - but it may just be a heap of fetid dingo's kidneys!

David

[Edited on 2/12/04 by David Jenkins]

a few years back, my wife worked as a temp in mercedes head office.

they used to sue anyone that modded a merc and left the badging on it. if you were a body shop altering the cars, youn had to take of the 3 pointed star and badging, as merc no longer wanted to be associated with modified cars.


At the end of the day, a small kit car company could be buried in litigation, wether or not it was ok to copy the car or not - i doubt fighting ferrari would be easy.

atb

steve

Hmmm, well some interesting information- thanks!

At the end of the day I'm not trying to go into production of a kit- I just want to build my own replica and it seems like this is perfectly ok- so will crack on with the dreaming!

Cheers,
James