Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/03/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 08:58 PM 3/16/2001 +0100, Julian Thomas wrote: >Now hold on a minite! Leica is now owned by Hermes, it is not owned by >Leica. So should Leica stop being called 'leica'? >Cosina bought the rights to the Voigt. name and puts out a range of rf >products under that name why shouldn't it use a name it bought? Apples and oranges, Julian. First, Leica is not "owned" by Hermes: they simply control 31% of the stock. Second, there still is a functioning Leica concern, but Voigtlander went west in 1965, and there has been no "Voigtlander" company thereafter, just a collection of intellectual property rights, former employees, trademarks, and buildings. Rollei got the buildings and some of the intellectual property rights and employees, Zeiss got the rest of the intellectual property rights and most of the employees, and the trademark went out to bid in Rollei's bankruptcy. I am not questioning Cosina's legal right to the Voigtlander name and trademarks. I am asking WHY an honest company would hide behind another company's name. It is rather as if the next BMW introduced came out under the name "Studebaker". Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!