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On 16 Mar 2004 at 14:31, Cybernotchback wrote: > My take on it is that MAM couldn't be bothered, (I even told the sales > person that MAM would lose a lot of friends). His response, "that's > too bad, but due to the lack of licensing they couldn't even sell > clothing". Which leads me to beleive that ANY part with a VW part #, VW > symbol...etc will likely be disposed of rather than sold. I think there's some misunderstanding here. I'm not a lawyer, but I think this is not nearly as bad as it is painted. If I try to print up T-shirts with the VW logo on them and sell them then I'm abusing VWs copyright and will have to stop. I can license this from them, however, and go ahead, but I'll have to pay something for the license. Parts with the VW logo on them are a different matter. If they actually have the VW logo on them, then they were originally sold to VW who then sold them to someone else. Once they sold them, they also sold the rights to dispose of them as the new owner sees fit, so MAM can resell them if it likes. The point here is that VW has already made its profit on them and can't complain. West Coast Metric is a perfect example of all this. For most of their startup years, all they sold was genuine VW parts which they bought (they bargained, and got a special deal) right from a VW dealer in their area. They could resell those parts within the US with no legal limitations. One thing that gets sticky is that VWoA is probably the only body which can legally import VW parts into the US, so it's possible that some parts might have been imported illegally, in which case they are still illegal to resell. I can imagine that VWoA might have sold RMMW a license to import certain VW goods, from Brazil, for example, but once those are legally imported under a valid VWoA license they are legal to resell. What I'm getting at is that I believe that if the parts were legal for RMMW to sell, then they would also be legal for MAM to sell. But if MAM does not renew their license to import, then their only option would be to buy from VWoA or to buy parts that did not carry the VW logo. Keep in mind that there are LOTs of good parts out there which are genuine OEM parts, but which don't carry the VW logo anywhere. You can still buy those at NAPA the same as you can buy a perfectly good part for your Ford. It just won't come in a box that says "Ford" on it, and it won't carry the Ford logo. Most of what RMMW sold didn't have a VW logo on it anyway, so those parts can't be affected. I don't think there is any way that you can require a license to make or sell replacement parts for any car. -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org