Border and Wingnuts go legal!

[macsporran]

Acknowledgements to the Wingnuts FB page where evidence of a spat over the Borders/WNW 1/32 Lancaster appears to be developing. Good luck to them both!

With no claims for veracity and admitting no liability, here is the alleged WNW statement and Borders post:
 
Today BORDER MODEL will issue a statement about Lancaster.
We released the 1/32 AVRO Lancaster w/full Interior 2 months ago. We did not mention any words about WINGNUTWINGS in all our official presentations. And did not use any rendering used by their company. The only BOXART used is from Mr. Mark Postlethwaite, the artist from whom we purchased the rights to use this Lancaster painting.  Although all modelers know that this kit first belonged to WINGNUTWINGS.
But the true story is that WINGNUTWINGS has never paid for the Lancaster molds since they announced their closure in 2020. As far as I know WINGNUTWINGS also owes a lot of mold fees to many mold factories in China. The factory owners are already on the verge of closing down because of the COVID19 in 2020 and the 2021 China's power restriction policy. One of the factory owners who helped WINGNUTWINGS to make the Lancaster molds is our friend. They complained to us that the department that WINGNUTWINGS has not responded to emails for a year and a half since 2020. They don't pay fees and would not say anything about the reason. Finally in June of 2021, the factory owner sent them a final email, which probably read: If you do not pay for the tooling and give a reasonable response and explanation within a month. We will dispose of LANCASTER's molds by ourselves. 
One month later, the factory had not received any positive response and certainly no payment. Subsequently, for many reasons, including helping the factory to recover its costs and BORDER also very much hope that this LANCASTER can be successfully launched, because it is the dream of many modelers including us！Then we signed a contract to purchase the mold on July 29th 2021. From now on, the 1/32 scale LANCASTER molds belong to BORDER MODEL!
But it was not an easy project. First of all we didn't have any CAD drawings of the Lancaster, and we used a special method in order to finish the assembly instructions. It took a lot of time and money to complete the instructions. Secondly, the molds for the Lancaster were not finished. There are many parts of such a huge bomber that contain many mistakes. Some details were missing, and some parts could not be assembled. We spent more time and money tweaking and repairing the molds because we didn't want such an epic product to come to market with flaws!
Our high retail price is also due to the above reasons. High tooling costs, more modification tests, difficult assembly instructions and all kinds of unforeseen risks. And we didn't think there would be great sales for such a huge aircraft.
Then in October, we received a letter from the lawyer of Peter Jackson, the founder of WINGNUTWINGS.
The lawyer's letter claims that we stole WINGNUTWINGS' molds and violated their intellectual property rights. The lawyer's letter is full of fabrications and lies, and claims that "BORDER obtained the molds from WINGNUTWINGS". Everyone knows that all official statements of BORDER do not mention even one word about WINGNUTWINGS. And our molds were legally purchased from the mold factory!
Then we replied and explained everything, but got no reply! After another half month, all BORDER agents around the world received a letter from Peter Jackson's lawyer. He threatened our agents not to allow them to sell BORDER 1/32 LANCASTER, which made us very angry! The lawyer's letter slandered us as thieves and said we were infringing their intellectual property rights. 
First of all, according to the contract between the factory and WINGNUTWINGS, the ownership of the LANCASTER mold belongs to the factory until the payment is completed made. The factory finally sold the molds to BORDER legally after a year and a half of communication without any response and learning that WINGNUTWINGS had closed down and sent an ultimatum. So 1/32 of LANCASTER's molds belong to BORDER without any doubt!
Secondly, the article about infringement of intellectual property rights is even more ridiculous. Everyone knows that military models are not copyrighted. Neither we nor the factory keep or use any of their company CAD drawings (which I think WINGNUTWINGS employees know), the factory only has 3D drawings of the parts used to design the molds. We have relied on a unique approach to creating the instructions. And we have modified many bad designs of the mold. The overall design has also undergone some modifications due to problems with the mold and the injection process. This is already a completely new development, so WINGNUTWINGS has no so-called "intellectual property" for this mold!
A final word about Peter Jackson and WINGNUTWINGS: Many people at WINGNUTWINGS knew in advance that we had purchased the LANCASTER mold, and they were all very happy to have this product available and helped us out a lot. They are all very wonderful and friendly people. As for the great director Peter Jackson, I guess he must be especially fond of LANCASTER, but unfortunately, although he is a great director, he is a failed scale model company owner. His own company is operating without any concern for all projects, and when he encounters difficulties, he simply closes the company, completely disregarding the livelihood of his employees! His company owed several factories in China more than a million US dollars in unpaid mold costs, which is the sign of a completely selfish and irresponsible person!
Maybe Peter Jackson thinks he is very rich and has a bunch of lawyers with nothing to do, so he can go around slandering and insulting people, and these lawyers' letters make us out to be criminal thieves and liars. Seriously damaging the image of our company and intimidating our agents! However, it is you who can do such a bad thing without knowing everything, or maybe you think that Chinese model companies and mold factories only steal your poor "intellectual property". And you are free to break the contract and default on the money that the factory depends on? So next time before you send a lawyer's letter, please make sure you are a responsible and trustworthy person.
At the end, I really hope Peter Jackson can reopen a modeling company, we would love to compete and battle with you in this industry. If not, then I think it's better for you to make movies.
BORDER's 1/32 LANCASTER will be released worldwide in December 2021, we have finished all the mold modifications, finished all the instructions, decals, painting instructions, and are in full production and packaging!
Either way we will release LANCASTER ！！！！

[ColonelKrypton]

Not surprising, seemed inevitable given the personalities involved.

cheers, Graham

[WD]

Wow, but then again, I'm not surprised.

WD

[KiwiZac]

The threads at Britmodeller and LSP on this have been looooong and in one case locked in fear of libel.

Some people just want their Lanc! It's such a shame this is happening. (Of course I'd love to have one but 1) cost b) space, iii) I don't think I'd have the energy to build anything ever again and, finally, cost)

[bobs_buckles]

Just my 2 cents.
I wouldn't touch the Border Lanc with a barge poll.

I hope WNW and Peter can get this stopped, but I do have my doubts.

vB   

[Borsos]

Just my 2 cents.
I wouldn't touch the Border Lanc with a barge poll.

I hope WNW and Peter can get this stopped, but I do have my doubts.

vB

Fascinating: you seem to have evidence that PJ/WNW is definitely right and Border is wrong. I for myself can’t see that at all. Would you share your special knowledge with us, please?
Andreas

[Bughunter]

Same question from my side.
If you look at how PJ ended up dealing with his employees, why should he have dealt differently with the mould makers?
If the moulds of the Fokker Dr.I had been paid for, Meng would certainly not have put them on the market. Exactly the same will have happened with the Lancaster.

Cheers,
Frank

[bobs_buckles]

Guys,
 I don't have any special knowledge and although we may disagree I respect your opinion. I don't have first hand experience working with Peter, So I can't judge the man. If he did wrong by his staff, then I'm sorry to hear that, but that is between him and his former staff. It is none of my business, nor would I want it to be my business.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel for me. Kotare  models will be releasing a Mk.1a Spitfire and by all accounts it will be a world beater. Happy days!.

Cheers,
Borderless Bob 

[pepperman42]

Is it me or does Border's statement have a bit of "Thou dost protest too much" in it? On the other hand stopping them from bringing the Lanc to market solves nothing and buries it in legal red tape forever.

Steve 

[Dave W]

Folks

Trying to decipher the legal complexities of the Wingnuts/ Border Model war is way too complex for us non-lawyers and it has the potential to become volatile when discussed so I am keeping a close watch on this thread, mindful that on some other sites it has gone wildly off tangent.

From what I understand of this issue (I'm a journalist, not a lawyer but I work for IP lawyers):

1. Wingnut Wings engaged a toolmaking firm in China to tool its two 1/32 Lancaster kits. This company is not a model retailer.

2. Wingnuts abandoned the Lancaster projects and all other in-development projects when the business was shut down last year.

3. While the project was abandoned, Wingnuts did not assign or abandon the Intellectual Property (IP) rights it has in the design of the components.

4. The toolmaking company seized the tooling and sold it to Border Model which it could legally do under Chinese law.

5. The issue is that Wingnuts insists the tooling company did not have the right to assign Wingnuts' IP (contained in the tooling) to another party and thus Border were not legally entitled to own, develop and produce the final kit.

6. The Wingnuts Lancaster projects took something like 10 years of development I am told and sadly the only people likely to see a profit from this will be the lawyers.

7. While Wingnuts may not be able to force the Courts in China to meet its claims and stop the kit's production, the company can employ its lawyers to warn western model retailers and hobby stores not to stock the kit, claiming the manufacturers did not have the right (the IP rights) to use the tooling.

Very messy, a very sad ending to what should have been Wingnuts' crowning glory and an interesting insight into what might happen to the tooling for those  1/32 Handley Page O/100 and O/400 kits that Wingnuts had ready for production. The tooling is somewhere in China.

It's a fascinating example of how the law and business can impact on our hobby but in the case of our little forum folks- it's a plastic model and it's a hobby so please keep it friendly.

Dave Wilson
Gold Cooast
Australia

[Bughunter]

Thank you Dave for the complete summary.

For me the main point is: are the tools paid or not.
If not, it could be sold to legally to Border model (loss limitation/insolvency law).

In my eyes it is exactly the same story as with the Fokker Dr.I and no lawyer stopped Meng to sell it world wide.

The world wide community still miss a official sentence about the end of WNW from PJ.

Cheers,
Frank

[Stuart Malone]

I am not in the market for one of these, but if I were, I would only buy one from a guy in a dark alley claiming it fell off the back of a truck. Paid for with cash of course. 

Stuart

[bobs_buckles]

I am not in the market for one of these, but if I were, I would only buy one from a guy in a dark alley claiming it fell off the back of a truck. Paid for with cash of course. 

Stuart

The normal way of buying then?  lol

 

[jamieg]

Owning the lumps of metal that are the moulds is one thing; owning the rights to produce anything from them is something entirely different.

[Borsos]

The only thing I can see is I can’t see anything through a fog of uncertainties.  Has WNW paid for the moulds? (Producing such „lumps of metal“ costs quite an amount of money…). If yes, I can understand that PJ is upset, if not — you cannot order 10 beers in a bar without paying them but insist on deciding who might drink them (even if the beer should be brewed according to your recipe).
What I generally wonder about is: Despite of the lack of crucial information regarding this case some people seem exactly to know who is right and who is wrong. Folks, no insult intended, but wouldn’t it be better to choose sides after knowing every important point of this complex case — if it is possible at all to choose a side? The world isn’t just black or white, good or bad. There’s no Saint Peter on the one side and evil orcs on the other …. 

Andreas