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carbon fiber dash


Crimsin

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Dan Juday: I Emailed the seller through Ebay where I bought the custom dash. He replied that the dash was produced in Texas and said they have gone out of business. I will attempt to contact John to see if he is the one that sold the dash to me. I will ask if he purchased the dash from a firm in Texas as a subcontractor and is it intellectual property. The dash did not come with a paper stating that it is covered by an intellectural property statement.
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Tonycharger72: Do you know John Washington personally? I wanted to SHARE the benefit of a custom dash with other Datsun owners. This dash solves the issue of realestate for custom gauges. There are some counterproductive statements made about this situation. If the design is intellectual property then so be it.

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Dan Juday: I Emailed the seller through Ebay where I bought the custom dash. He replied that the dash was produced in Texas and said they have gone out of business. I will attempt to contact John to see if he is the one that sold the dash to me. I will ask if he purchased the dash from a firm in Texas as a subcontractor and is it intellectual property. The dash did not come with a paper stating that it is covered by an intellectural property statement.

 

My mistake. Sounded a lot like Johns dash.

 

I back up John Washington every chance I get. He is one of the very few people out there producing several high quality products for our old Z cars. Plus he is a quality guy. That is a rare combination. In the last few years he has gotten very frustrated with this business. He has been burned several times by buyers and ripped off by LOW quality guys in the glass biz (did I say Show Cars out load?).

 

One day he will have had enough and we in the Z car community will all be the poorer.

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Intellectual property? Was he the inventor of Carbon fiber dashboards? Unless you have a trademark or copyright forgetthaboutit. Thats like saying that the guy who designed the 240Z should pay royalties to Jaguar and Ferrari. Or michelin should pay firestone since they started making tires too. Good intensions but this argument holds no water.

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Tonycharger72: Do you know John Washington personally? I wanted to SHARE the benefit of a custom dash with other Datsun owners. This dash solves the issue of realestate for custom gauges. There are some counterproductive statements made about this situation. If the design is intellectual property then so be it.

 

No, you wanted to copy someone elses idea with the possibility of making money from potential sales - this is not for the betterment of humanity, this is a money making exercise :-)!

 

At any rate...........Have a careful read through my statements rsicard, I am pretty sure my point is fairly clear, literally stealing John's products or anyone elses fibreglass products would be something the original producer would have a very tricky time trying to stop, mainly because even if the dash is customised I really think the original rights to said product would be with the car manufacturer, Nissan - I really don't think you can copyright a copy of something!

 

There is a lot of firms out there selling carbon fibre this and fibreglass that, I think if there was an issue with making these car parts and panels these firms wouldn't exist?

 

The point I am really trying to get across is this!!!

 

I back up John Washington every chance I get. He is one of the very few people out there producing several high quality products for our old Z cars. Plus he is a quality guy. That is a rare combination. In the last few years he has gotten very frustrated with this business. He has been burned several times by buyers and ripped off by LOW quality guys in the glass biz (did I say Show Cars out load?).

 

One day he will have had enough and we in the Z car community will all be the poorer.

 

Make your own plug and sell copies of that :-)!

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My mistake. Sounded a lot like Johns dash.

 

I back up John Washington every chance I get. He is one of the very few people out there producing several high quality products for our old Z cars. Plus he is a quality guy. That is a rare combination. In the last few years he has gotten very frustrated with this business. He has been burned several times by buyers and ripped off by LOW quality guys in the glass biz (did I say Show Cars out load?).

 

One day he will have had enough and we in the Z car community will all be the poorer.

 

This was the reason for me sticking my long nose into this post also.... :D. John has done right by me, so I felt it was something I needed to speak up on. Let's just try and be good guy's about this!! :cheers:

 

I did not mean to come across as a azwipe... :redface:

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so now that everyone has that warn and fuzzy feeling can we get atleat 10 people together to get these made? It seems I cant even get 10 people for a carbon fiber console

 

I'd be interested, but as mentioned earlier, it all depends on the final price.

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:hijack:

 

edit: this thread belongs in the shed - crimson, i recomend you start from scratch with another thread

for the record, i don't have any interest in a cf dash, but if you just had them made as cheap as you could, and sold, say ten of them in the vendors forum for anywhere from 400 to 800, they would probably sell in days.

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Fiberglass "SPLASHING" has gone to the supreme court.

 

Twelve states have direct molding statutes. Little distinction exists

among them. Only three states apply the direct molding prohibition to

all manufactured items: California, Michigan, and Tennessee. The

remaining nine statutes apply only to vessels and their components.

.... Bonito Boats, a Florida corporation, designed an original hull for a

fiberglass recreational boat in 1976. 69 It marketed the product under,; the

trade name Bonito Boat Model 5VBR ("the hull"). The hull required the

preparation of a complete set of engineering drawings. These drawings

were used to craft a male hardwood hull mold. From the male mold, a

fiberglass female mold was produced which was used to construct

finished boats to be offered for sale. A broad interstate market

developed for the 5VBR boat. .... Thunder Craft copied the hull for commercial purposes. To make the

copy, Thunder Craft chose the one means of duplication prohibited by

Florida statute, the direct molding process. Indeed, Thunder Craft

bought a Bonito hull and used it as the male mold. The female mold was

created by "splashing" fiberglass on the surface of the hull. 72 Thunder

Craft then used this mold to produce identical copies which were marketed

as its own under the name "Capri." Thunder Craft thereby cut its

development costs to almost nothing. Bonito informed Thunder Craft

that its actions violated section 559.94, but the copying persisted. Bonito filed suit in the Florida courts on December 21, 1984.

 

The circuit judge noted that the hull is in the public domain just as any article which is unpatentable or on which the patent has expired. Therefore, federal patent law permits duplication of the hull by any means. To forbid copying would interfere with the federal policy of allowing free access to public domain items, regardless of the copier's

motives. .... The United States Supreme Court heard Bonito's appeal in December 1988. Bonito argued that the state direct molding statute could exist in harmony with

federal patent law. 87 First, it asserted that the statute did not provide the

equivalent of patent protection. Second, it argued that the statute

represents the legitimate exercise of Florida's power to regulate unfair

business competition. ... In any event, the hull design would not have qualified for copyright

protection due to its utilitarian nature. Also, federal copyright law

would not preeempt the Florida statute because the statute does not

prohibit copying per se, but only the use of a single unfair process.

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so now that everyone has that warn and fuzzy feeling can we get atleat 10 people together to get these made? It seems I cant even get 10 people for a carbon fiber console

 

You're asking us to commit to a purchase that has no value.

 

Oh sure, i'll take one! When it turns out to be 3 grand, might be over-budget for some. Get an idea of cost and then post back.

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this thread belongs in the shed - crimson, i recomend you start from scratch with another thread

for the record, i don't have any interest in a cf dash, but if you just had them made as cheap as you could, and sold, say ten of them in the vendors forum for anywhere from 400 to 800, they would probably sell in days.

 

have you priced having one made with any local fabricators?

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As I said sport, have a read through what I have said, I don't think I have accused anyone of doing any wrong, because at this point no one has actually done anything yet as numerous other posters have mentioned, ie.......get a product and a price and then we will talk!

 

I have offered an opinion that pretty clearly states that I don't think doing something like this is illegal at all, but if (THATS IF) someone did blatantly rip another vendor off, then you could possibly put people's noses out of joint!

 

I probably lept to John Washington's defence a bit to forcefully though, particulary as it seems his products aren't involved at all in this :-)!

 

I know this is a state finding and only regulated under state law and I don't know if there is any federal statue overriding this finding or if there was any subsequent findings which differ from this one in 1988, but as Trevor has posted - flat out copying somone else work dosen't appear illegal at all!

 

The circuit judge noted that the hull is in the public domain just as any article which is unpatentable or on which the patent has expired.

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If it's a stock dash, then yea, no biggie, but if it's John Washington's design, being copied, in CF w/o his knowledge, I think is a biggie.... right ? :)

 

Well, in California it could be a "biggie". If you look at Washington's website, you will note that he is selling two separate designs. He clearly identifies who is responsible for each design. I will give you odds that Washington either purchased the design or is licensed to sell them. His website also contains several admonitions that everything on the site or sold off the site is his intellectual property.

 

I note that in another context if you wish to purchase, for example, new aluminum ribbed CSB valve covers with the word "Corvette" cast into them, you will most likely purchase them as being licensed by GM. Same with Ford.

 

Given that Just Dashes will charge more than $500 to recover your stock dash, those reactionresearch.com dashes are a real bargain.

 

 

 

G

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