Posted by Bill Walden on August 31, 1999 at 05:59:39 in 152.163.197.199:
In Reply to: Re: Titanic Modeling Entusiast Association - An Idea posted by Dennis on August 30, 1999 at 23:09:19:
Another brief comment from experience with the motorcycle club I talked about before. When we started we wanted to name the club - the "California Eagles" (which we did - one of the only things we registered so no one else could *borrow* it) and there was some question because we hung out a bar named the "San Francisco Eagle". We were afraid that the bar owners could prevent us from using the name we wanted. We were told that as long as no one else was using California Eagles that it was ours. The bar could only have protested or tried to stop us if we called it the San Francisco Eagles. We had a different combination of words. In actuality it proved both to our advantage and the bars to share this name though I was told the bar was more than a little upset when they first heard about it. But that is another story. The point of all this is that I don't think you will find any problem using any of the names suggested. I think the Queen Mary problem (which strikes me as totally ridiculous) must have some connection to the name *Queen Mary* which must be copyrighted by someone (like the names of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley). As far as I know no one has this kind of control over the name Titanic and if they do they have let a lot of others get away with using it! Now, in the US at least, Olympic on the other hand is owned by the Olympic Committee by act of the US Congress and the Committee might get upset if we called it the Olympic Modeling Association! 8-)
I like the suggestion of calling it the *Titanic Modeling Society* or *Titanic Modeling Association* and possibly working the word *Research* in there somewhere.
Regards,
Bill Walden
: Sean:
: This all sounds like a great idea! Your concerns about copyright infringements are well founded.
: The Queen Mary Foundation is now being sued by the present QM owner for using the name "Queen Mary" Who would have even thought of that!
: Anyway, putting some research into a name wouldn't be a bad idea at all. I've included a link to the QM page which has an article about the whole thing. Count me in though! I've been reading this page for the past year constantly
: (mostly silent)and find it fascinating!
: Den