Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/03/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]From: "Marc James Small" <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> > 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". BMW will come out with a new car under the name, "Rolls-Royce." As you are aware, BMW bought the rights to the name, "Rolls-Royce" while its competitor, Volkswagen bought Rolls-Royce, the factory. If you question an honest company would hide behind another company's name, I'd imagine that you would call BMW's purchase of the brand name unethical.