Renaming the V&T and Janice Ayres/ NNRF needs a history lesson

No. 30 -- VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

First, Janice Ayres, president of the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation, must not know her history. She says they have been asked for trademark reasons not to use the name Virginia and Truckee Railroad on their calendars.

She said she used it with permission (probably true) and wanted to use it because that was the name of the railroad featured in the calendar. The calendar from NNRF features photos of the original V&T RR from before 1950.

IN A HISTORICAL SENSE, VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILROAD AND RAILWAY ARE THE SAME THING

She's not aware, apparently, that the Virginia and Truckee Railroad became the Virginia and Truckee Railway. I believe this was in 1904 but don't quote me. So to put Virginia and Truckee Railway on a calendar would be perfectly well within the trademark owned by the Commission AND would represent the proper railroad, er, railway.

COMMISSION DISCUSSED RENAMING THE PROJECT

Check out this story from Karen Woodmansee of the Virginia City News:
http://www.virginiacitynews.com/link.asp?smenu=95&sdetail=1967&wpage=1

Someone brought up a comment on the Yahoo Group that discussed this project. The commenter was surprised/shocked that the government commission was considering changing the name of their boondoggle railroad reconstruction project.

Here is what I posted in response:

From the VirginiaandTruckee1976 Yahoo Group, which you should check out...

Just to be clear, it's the Commission's Virginia and Truckee Railway that talked about the name change. For those not up to speed on the trademark dispute, here's the scoop:

The Virginia and Truckee Railroad (the good guys) has owned the trademark to operate a railroad called the Virginia and Truckee Railroad since (don't quote me) the 1960's. They were sold this name by Grahame Hardy, famous railroad memorabilia seller and book publisher.

Bob Gray bought/acquired that trademark and if you look it up on USPTO.gov it's clearly for an operating railroad.

Now remember your history, the original Virginia and Truckee Railroad, incorporated in 1868, went into re-organization, I think it was in 1904. They renamed it the Virginia and Truckee Railway and operated as such until abandonment in 1950. For a photo, see http://www.livingsteam.com/virginia-and-truckee-railroad-history.html.

Now sometime later, Grahame Hardy's stepson, Joe Curtis registered the Virginia and Truckee Railway as a trademark for souvenier items like T-shirts, coffee cups, etc. Joe Curtis is the 800 lb gorilla in VC, owns the Mark Twain bookstore and lots of property, and is also the fire chief, and the building code inspector. He pulls a lot of weight up there and many people don't get along with him.

So Curtis is free to slap Virginia and Truckee Railway all over chachki's, t-shirts and bumper stickers. You can also look up his trademark at uspto.gov.

SO WHAT'S THE CONFLICT?

Curtis gave or sold his trademark to the government commission, the Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the Virginia and Truckee Railway. This happened in the last few years and the Gray's REAL V&TRR have been fighting it because the Curtis/Re-con commission trademark for Virginia and Truckee Railway does NOT extend to an operating railroad.

Who's to say what a court would decide, but under trademark law the commission likely can't run a railroad with a name so close to an existing trademarked railroad when their trademark is only for souveniers.

So the commission likely has three choices: fight the Grays in court over the use of the name, license the name from the Grays, or choose a different name.

Since the gov't has much deeper pockets than the Grays, I wouldn't be surprised if the Commission ignores the clear trademark precedent, beats them up in a long court process and wins in the end. They are above the law in so many ways, and have experience ignoring and flouting federal law. Why should a little trademark stop them? I hope I'm wrong.

OK, novel over.




(see you next month, MAYBE!)