In a message dated 10/15/01 7:44:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time, twrawson@worldnet.att.net writes:
<<
Friends Flash (Hetchins unofficial) and Andrew Moore (victim of the Campag
track hub sit earlier this year) have asked that we take a look at this:
http://www.flashq.de/
I took a look and I see the various arguments that I have heard batted around. As the owner of 8 Hetchins bikes (!) I am very interested in this set of developments...
I see a distinct problem... While David Miller certainly has been part of the continuing production of the Hetchins brand, it appears to me that Mark Joynt at Omega may have found a legal loophole in the rights to the name and he (somewhat opportunistically) has latched on to it! He certainly was adamant about making that point that in my recent talk with him at the Las Vegas InterBike.
It seems to me that the only way this could be resolved is for some legal test to be launched by one party or the other. If this is not resolved, the Hetchins name will be confused and damaged by many people trying to claim the right to produce them... In the end, perhaps the quality of the bicycles will be all that's left (As in the Masi saga?) but what a shame to end on such a sour note.
In a message dated 10/15/01 9:37:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time, stevens@veloworks.com writes:
<< The "forged" Hetchins that turned up in a Northern California shop was built by Ron Cooper. Regardless of what David Miller might say, that frame along with at least one or two others was absolutely was built by Ron. We now refer to the frame as a Hetchins replica......
This was hashed out late last year on this very list ...
I have absolutely no knowledge of association Ron Cooper and Omega Cycles and after the furor caused late last year, I very seriously doubt that there any such association exists. >>
Well, we certainly talked about it a lot, but I am not sure if there was any resolution of this situation. (Which I am also quite sure is a separate deal from Omega!) The questions remain.. "Was this frame sold and represented as a bona fide Hetchins?" "By selling/buying 'unauthorized" Hetchins frames, is not someone being deprived of their livelihood?" "Why would a respected and famous builder make a frame that is a unauthorized replica?"
I again recently asked David Miller, the hitherto assumed "official" keeper of the Hetchins license, about this Bicycle Odyssey frame and he states he knows of no Ron Cooper Hetchins frames and that he certainly never authorized any such to be built. David is a very nice fellow and one would hope he is the correct caretaker of the Hetchins marque, but this seems to be a serious challenge!
So it's all a little confusing.. Who is legally the owner of the Hetchins name? Why do others seem to feel they have the right, legally or morally, to produce Hetchins frames? Why doesn't someone produce some documents or bring a lawsuit and get this situation resolved?
Footnote: All this has little to do with quality of the frames, just their lineage.. I am quite sure Ron Cooper and Mark Joynt and a number of others make bang up frames...
Final clarification.. "Flash" erroneously notes in his web page that cycles de ORO is the UK sales outlet for Hetchins.. Many of you know that CDO is in North Carolina USA and actually World Class Cycles are the authorized Hetchins dealer in the USA (or are they?) ...
Dale Brown
Greensboro, North Carolina