Well, the shop's story, which someone posted earlier, was that the importer told them that Ron Cooper and others are licensed to produce Hetchins in UK. This of course contradicts the story of David Miller who claims to hold the exclusive rights. If the bikes in question are so shoddy as to be obvious fakes, I would doubt the importer's story that Ron Cooper produced them, but I suppose that wouldn't conclusively prove that the "fakes" are not being produced under a valid license. After all, Motobecanes are now being produced in Taiwan by a firm with a very shady past who unfortunately do own the rights to the Motobecane name, so these may be "fake" Motobecanes in an artistic sense, but not a legal one. I would think the most effective action would be for David Miller to file a complain with the US Customs Service or the US Attorney's offices in the appropriate jurisdictions, including documentation of David's claim to hold exclusive rights. Perhaps someone here is knowledgeable enough of these matters to advise David the procedures for doing this. Let's hope David's claim is valid and that someone else does not hold a valid license to degrade the Hetchins name. I haven't yet heard much from our UK members as to who, other than David Miller, may be producing Hetchins in UK.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
MasiGC3V@aol.com wrote:
> Dale:
>
> The sale of such fakes constitutes trademark infringement if they are
> not authorized by Hetchins. It would be appropriate to advise the United
> States Attorneys Office of this crime in the districts where these bikes are
> imported or sold. I would hope that this would result in the prosecution of
> those who plan and profit from this fraud.
>
> If you need the addresses of those prosecutors or investigative agencies I'd
> be happy to provide them to you.