http://www.mayfair-motors.co.uk/


And some interesting reading in the legal papers on mylittlecar.co.uk's website too , http://www.mylittlecar.co.uk/ .

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Before you know it bastards incorporated will be telling us we can't call our (classic) minis Minis, Coopers or Clubmans because they own those words.

Or ban eBay and others from displaying ads using the words

Just make me not want to own anything BMW - I'm sure if they were a bit less draconian in their approach more Mini fans would be more receptive to the MINI and consider owning one eventually

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

Wow, you cant even sell something in the shape of a mini.
Greedy Ba@34rds.

So I guess all sigs, usernames, and anything else Mini/MINI related on this site are a direct infringement of copyright (unless of course you have received permissions from BMW, including providing royalties) and we must now all discontinue use of these said names, logos and shapes associated with the mini motor car....

I have checked this out with BMW. Theyare clobbering anybody making money from the mini name or shape etc. Communities and clubs dont have a problem.

Businesses just need to register their products with BMW who make sure they meet a particular standard. Royalties may or may not apply depending on the product.

If you make money from somebodies elses copyright they have a right to clobber you. However BMW a being a little bit heavy handed - eg they stopped the British Motor Museum selling keyrings that were not BMW approved

I got hassled by BMW because I have the JCW works logo on my stripes, they saw a pic of my car on the net in the UK and rang the dealer here, who then passed them on to the guy who did the stripes for me, who then passed them on to me.

At the end of the day after telling them I had paid $11K for their tuning package and if i wanted the bloody logo on my stripes i was going to have it or they could come and try taking the stripes off themselves (to which they would lose their fingers) they agreed to let me keep them. They have informed the stripe man he will be prosecuted if he produced any more.

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S

"Just make me not want to own anything BMW"

I won't own anything BMW because my uncle from the Ukraine was forced to work in their factories in WW2. They compensated him in the 80s with a few thousand dollars.

I hate the heavy-handedness on three counts:

1) There would be limited interest in the MINI today if it wasn't for the thousands of businesses worldwide that sprang up over the last 48 years to support the original Mini.

2) Many of those businesses were using the words "Mini" and "Cooper" long before BMW bought the rights to anything, and the previous owners of those rights (BMC, Rover Leyland etc) had no issue with the use of the name at the time.

3) BMW dare to DEMAND "damages" from those very same businesses!

Fortunately so far this heavy-handedness has not spread to Australia. Perhaps our laws prevent it in some way.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

Australian business have been targeted as well. Its it their registered so they have the right go after people that use it - however maybe they should be better corporate citizens

Personally , if they were only enforcing their copywrite/ownership of the new MINI that their company designed it wouldn't bother me , they're entitled to do that . My complaint lies with them putting the strong arm tactics on people who are continuing the interest in the original mini which only shares a resemblance and the name with the new MINI by BMW . Buisinesses like mylittlecar were (I think , I'm waiting for someone from the UK to confirm that) making things in the shape of the original mini before BMW took over the name but now have had to stop .

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Lets look at it a slighly different way.....
The Australian company that made Minis was never owned by BMW or even Rover.
JRA bought the remains of the Leyland Australia company and that included the rights for the Australian made Minis.
So where does that leave BMW in Australia?

Does this mean i have to remove the badges from my Cooper S and call it an 850 ...

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1965 Morris 850
1966 Morris Mini Minor
1967 Morris Cooper 'S'
1977 Leyland LS

I'm not sure about the Aussie end, but wouldn't that make Ford the current owner (appart from the Rover end)?

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1964 Morris 850, 1330 Supercharged - 81.8hp atws.
1975 Leyland Mini S 1100S powered - Nice and reliable.
1977 Leyland Mini LS - Project LS-T

When BMW owned Rover they kept the Mini bit and sold the Rover bit.
The funny thing was the way that BMW kept the Mini name while giving Rover the rights to the Mini spare parts.
But now the parts section is owned by Delphi and Ford owns the Rover name (but Ford does not own any of the old Rover company)