copywrite/patent laws

No one is going to bother you at 1 or 2 units a week. It's not worth the expense or the agro for them to make a case out of it. If it all gets a bit silly, just say sorry and stop doing it.

This isn't legal advice but is probably the common sense approach.

PS. I trust you aren't going to be making and marketing a pair of balls that hang from the number plate? If you are I'll have a set. Mates rates of course.

[squirrel_hunter]

I'm not sure of the legalities of things. But might be worth asking TaffMoto about it as they have made a business out of this sort of thing...

Originally Posted by Wideboy

I've managed to get my grubby fingers are a piece of body work for a bike that was discontinued nearly 10 years ago. As a result they're now rare as rocking horse ****.

I paid a decent amount for it and was wondering what legal implications would there be on me taking a mold and selling a few on ebay?

dont know the exact details,but dave silver can have just about any parts made for old honda's,that can be made and sold at a profit,as long as these parts dont have the honda logo on them,the thing he cant do is respray say a honda cb400 four tank and put reproduction tank badgers or tranfers on them,nor can he import old/new spares from anywhere out side the EU,and honda are very strict on there trade mark name and importing spares from abroard

[Wideboy]

I think i worded my original post badly.

The bike was discontinued ages ago, it was the after market body part that was discontinued 10 years ago.

[flymo]

Copyright would not apply in this case, it only applies to creative works.

If there was a patent pending or granted, or a registered design covering the item then you would need to obtain licence from the current holder to manufacture the parts.

If neither of these exist you can go ahead and make/sell them.

[Red Herring]

I believe there is nothing that can stop you making any part you want, it's all about how you describe it. For example if you have identified that there is a market for Yamaha TDR250 side panels there is nothing that says you cannot make a mold (however you may choose to do so) and sell the panel provided you describe it as your panel that fits a TDR250, rather than as a "Yamaha TDR250 side panel" which would imply that it was produced by Yamaha.

Patent is about copying somebody else's design, for example I think it was Ford that produced the first heated front windscreen and they patented the technique, which meant that it was then several years before another manufacturer was able to work out a sufficiently different way of achieving the same result to be able to also produce one themselves without having to pay Ford a licence fee.

[flymo]

Patent is protection of an idea, be it a technology, business or manufacturing process etc. Design is all about visual representation such as shape of a bottle, logo, packaging colour etc.

If there is a current valid patent or registered design then you would be at risk of breaching it, but I would guess very unlikely in this scenario.

Change one small bit and it is yours anyway, that is what people do when they copy our fridges.

[embee]

FWIW a chap on a bike forum has had moulds made for a particular bike bodywork accessory part which the original (one of the big 4) manufacturer discontinued. He then has had several batches of parts made by the moulding company and has sold them for a couple of years now. Hope that is all vague enough.

Anyway, it's only anecdotal but he's continuing to sell them, and they were an accessory from the bike manufacturer not an aftermarket business.

I'd guess your bigger concern would be to accurately describe them to your purchasers.

[Wideboy]

Ok. So rather than put "honda bla bla" I should put "bla bla to fit honda"?

Makes sense.