Im looking at ways of making the production of the body for my midi a bit easier...
There is currently a car that I quite like in production by a well known company....
Where would I stand legaly if I buy a set of their bodywork (off a crashed car), and set about doing some significant modifications to it...Moving the
headlights, flaring the wheels, moving vents etc...
By the time im finished it wont look a huge amount like the origional car, but it might look similar from some angles...
Would I be able to do this legaly without infringing any copywrite work?
Not that I want to, but what happens if I wanted to sell some of my custom bodywork to someone else...is that then illeagal?
I am NOT copying their bodywork, mearly using it as a scafold to build my own shape...
[Edited on 6/1/08 by tegwin]
"I am NOT copying their bodywork, mearly using it as a scafold to build my own shape... "
Seems like you just answered your own question. It's not like you are building replicas for sale.
Plenty of kit cars use OEM windscreens etc.
If the existing vehicle has registered design rights then the legal stance is that your vehicle must look different in the eyes of an educated
person.
Educated means that the judge would look at it and may call upon say a car designer to say in his eyes if the design is different.
By the way this would only matter if you actually sell them.
Steve
If you are not going to make any money off of it, you probably won't have a problem copying. I think the Locost 7 was based on another car
somewhere, if I vaguely recall correctly.
just look at all the f355 mr2 cars out there.
Just look at some of the Lada Rivas and Fiat 126's. I have never heard them take each other to court and come to think of it, neither Lexus and
Mecedes!
It is not a direct copy, so no worries.
They were built under licence like the Indian Austins and Mexican VWs. As mentioned earlier if you aren't intending to copy and sell it you should have no problems with copyright law.
Look westfield and cateham , so even if U'r going to sell them it is good enough to add went on hood and change rear lights ... trust me ,
I'm doing some import from china and U wouldn't believe what minor changes pass the copyright law (talking about pioner, soni, panasanics,
tehniks audio equipment 
)
Have a look at Pre-lit vs Post lit westfields, hardly any difference in my eyes. Change a few subtle details and dimensions and then even the mighty lawyers at Caterham stop.
Doesn't matter if you aren't selling the chassis. As for the body, if it's going to be completely different then that's no problem either, plenty of companies have offered alternative bodies for other peoples base cars (there was a nice one for the MK Indy but I can't remember the name).
quote:
Originally posted by balidey
Have a look at Pre-lit vs Post lit westfields, hardly any difference in my eyes. Change a few subtle details and dimensions and then even the mighty lawyers at Caterham stop.
I wouldnt worry about it to much
chris