Thanks Abe for your common-sense reply.
The broadest Victor application would probably be the slightly later
style pre-Orthophonic album style, but I think the survival rate on
these is generally much higher than the early ones with the large gold-
plated rings, which I assume would be in higher demand but perhaps
would fill the need for the early machines much faster than the more
common variety, and therefore perhaps not nearly enough sold to cover
the cost of the manufacturer's MOQ (minimum order quantity).
It may be that there would have to be a compromise between cost, style
and quantity. Thanks again for your input. If anyone else has
further thoughts on this, please feel free to comment.
Best,
Andy
On Sep 2, 2010, at 11:52 AM, Abe Feder wrote:
Hi All,
Almost all machines that I look at are either missing the albums, or
they
are coming apart. It would seem to me that the market is there but I
am
pretty new to the hobby. While viewing that issue I can tell you
that in
being involved in the vintage car hobby that almost all parts
suppliers meet
with great success when they repro a part. I guess it all comes down
to 3
things. What will the investment be, what is the min order and will
people
pay the price for the items. Viewing eBay I find that even a crummy
set of
albums for a XVI have sold in many cases for $125-150 more when you
add
shipping. There seems to be a great number of different models that
can use
the same album style. I would think that you would do the style that
would
have the widest use factor.
Just my thoughts
Abe Feder
On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 6:40 PM, Jim Nichol <jnic...@fuse.net> wrote:
On Sep 1, 2010, at 7:11 PM, Andrew Baron wrote:
Which brings me to the point: Does anyone here know the current
ownership
status of the famous trademark?
****************************
I'm reposting the Rolfs' email on the Nipper Trademark:
Jim Nichol
****************************
From: Robin Rolfs <nip...@dataex.com>
Subject: [Phono-L] Rights to HMV
Date: September 25, 2008 3:28:38 PM EDT
To: Antique Phonograph List <phono-l@oldcrank.org>
Reply-To: Antique Phonograph List <phono-l@oldcrank.org>
Greetings,
We recently wrote a book on Nipper Collectibles and the history of
the
Nipper Trademark, which we hope every collector has added to their
library.
In short, Nipper and the "His Master's Voice" along with RCA, once
the most
powerful trademarks in the world have dissipated into the foreign
graveyard
of cast-off and near forgotten trademarks. Here are our summarized
findings:
"RCA" is nothing more than a trademark. Once acquired by General
Electric
in 1986, it RCA Records to Bertelsmann A.G. A year later, both RCA
and GE
Consumer Electronics businesses were sold to the French firm,
Thomson SA,
while GE retained RCA's NBC broadcasting interests. In 1988, Thomson
Consumer Electronics was formed and later renamed Thomson
Multimedia in
1995, and in 2002 was again renamed Thomson SA. Thomson bought the
"His
Master's Voice" trademark from GE in 2003 and transferred it to RCA
Trademark Management SA in France. One year later, Thomson entered
into a
joint venture with TCL Corporation, a large electronics manufacturing
company in southern China. TCL has acquired all the manufacturing
rights
to
RCA brand televisions. The last of the Thomson line of RCA consumer
electronics was recently purchased by Audiovox. Meanwhile, RCA
Records is
now part of Sony BMG Music Group. RCA Laboratories has been
transferred to
SRI International and renamed Sarnoff Corporation. RCA Aerospace &
Defense
combined with GE Aerospace, only to be sold to Martin Marietta in
1993
which
soon merged with Lockheed Corporation. In the spring of 1997,
Lockheed
Martin Communications Systems, Camden, NJ was renamed L-3
Communication
Corp.
England still retains the rights to use the trademark logo and name
for
their "HMV" stores. China, who indirectly obtained the logo from
the U.S.
through Thomson can only use it on products sold in China.
Likewise, in
Japan, JVC founded in 1927 as "The Victor Company of Japan," now
owned by
Matsushita, can use the HMV logo only on products sold in Japan.
Because
of
territorial licensing, Nipper can no longer be used as a tool in
the global
marketing and identification of a product. Since the trademark can
legitimately only be used only for products sold in the country of
origin,
it is doubtful that it will ever show up on products intended to be
sold
internationally. Since no single entity "owns" the trademark, its
use for
other purposes (collectibles, nick-knacks, T-shirts, crap-o-phones)
goes
unchallenged.
Robin & Joan Rolfs
Visit us at:
www.audioantique.com
On Sep 1, 2010, at 7:11 PM, Andrew Baron wrote:
Which brings me to the point: Does anyone here know the current
ownership
status of the famous trademark?
_______________________________________________
Phono-L mailing list
http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
_______________________________________________
Phono-L mailing list
http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
_______________________________________________
Phono-L mailing list
http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
