Don Stackhouse @ DJ Aerotech wrote:
As some of you on these lists may recall, three years ago we were approached by EMI, a company hired by Lockheed-Martin to administer their trademark licensing program for them, regarding our Roadkill Series P-38 kit. It is Lockheed-Martin's policy that ANYONE (no exceptions) must be properly licensed by them to legally make models of any of their aircraft, including the ancestor companies such as (but not limited to) Lockheed, Martin, General Dynamics, Convair, or Consolidated.
We had the choice of either discontinuing the P-38 kit, or obtaining a license. During the negotiations, we were told of various benefits to us that being license holders would include.
We decided to try it their way, and invest in a 3-year license. The cost was a token amount for them, although it was not a token amount for a tiny company like ours. Still, if the benefits outlined to us were real, it would be a worthwhile investment.
To make a long and painful story short, the benefits did not materialize to any significant extent. In addition, they are now insisting on a much bigger cost (from our point of view, but not in their eyes) for renewal of the agreement. Given that the real benefits we experienced fell well short of what we'd been led to expect, and did not even justify our original investment, we simply cannot renew at anything even close to the proposed terms. There are plenty of other kit subjects from companies that do not subject us to this sort of treatment.
We do have a few remaining of the two kits that are subject to this license. We are discontinuing production and sales of our Roadkill Series Lockheed P-38 and Model 10 Electra, effective either 12-31-04 or when the existing inventory of these kits runs out, whichever comes first. If you want one, better get it quick, once they're gone, there will not be any more.
As far as the other Lockheed-Martin related kits we had in development, some Roadkill Series, some bigger, and some giant scale, those will never see the outside of my computer.
We're sorry to have to take this position, but they have really left us with no real choice.
As far as any pressure on EMI or Lockheed-Martin from any of you reading this, in reaction to this turn of events (such as what some list members did three years ago), please refrain from doing so. We do appreciate your concern. However, we were told by the good folks at EMI three years ago that they "could make it difficult for us" if that occurred any more (even though we had nothing to do with the actions of others back when it happened, having in no way asked anyone to do any such thing), and I can only assume that threat still stands. At this point, Joe and I are relieved to be rid of this whole unpleasant affair.
Don Stackhouse @ DJ Aerotech [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.djaerotech.com/
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