Think The History Might Be A Little Off Here

Jerry,

   Looks like he just made it up, some people have no idea that Lionel & MTH made agreements on Reproducing Tin Plate Trains. 

Real nice 263E girls train no doubt about it.

PCRR/Dave

The story that Lionel gave MTH the rights to use the Lionel name on tin plate as part of a legal settlement has been around for a long time.

There have been many who claim to have seen it on a legal site somewhere.

It does make sense, because MTH was originally awarded  40 million in the case, Lionel may have made the deal to prevent bankruptcy.

I don't think anyone, other than Lionel and MTH know for sure.

Kevin,

Lionel may have made the deal to prevent bankruptcy.

Actually, Lionel settled the case to get out of bankruptcy.

"Lionel repro set of the 1957 Girls pink set, only in TINPLATE"

How can it be a repro of something never produced. At best it's a version inspired by the Girls set. At worst it's some scarily hideous pink to train

Folks,

Hate to ruin a perfectly fun conspiracy story, but Lionel licensed MTH to use their name for the MTH tinplate replica line.

Top people from both companies, (Like Jerry Calabrese and Mike Wolf, for instance) both affirm that the deal had nothing to do with the agreement that resulted from the epic lawsuit.

From what I understand, Lionel decided that it would take too much time and money to match MTH in the tinplate area, when the same resources could be used more profitably elsewhere.

Lionel gets a share of tinplate sales for the use of its name and logos and that seemed the better way to them.  I think the original agreement was renewed recently and both sides seem reasonably happy with it.

Sorry to ruin a Saturday afternoon of speculation.

Ed Boyle

The "history" posted is even more inaccurate than so far mentioned. The bizarre statement implies Lionel sued MTH for copying its products.  To my knowledge, Lionel has never sued MTH for trademark or trade dress infringement.

And just to be fully accurate, Lionel entered bankruptcy to facilitate the appeal of the initial verdict, and thus did not have to post a bond in the amount of the original award. It was a legal maneuver, not a financial one, in essence.  The initial verdict was voided, mostly for procedural reasons.  It was the appellate court's opinion that a key expert witness made invalid assertions.  The final settlement was supervised by and under the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy judge.  No trial on the facts ever occurred after that first voided decision.  Since Lionel and MTH have since become partners in this tinplate venture, it would be great if people ceased making wildly inaccurate assertions about the nature of the original lawsuit and how it was settled.

There's more misinformation on the web about these proceedings than there is about command control.

Just some sale puffery, that's all.

Ed:

Thanks for setting the record straight. many of us followed these events when they occurred, but I guess some did not.

How can anything pink be hideous? Even Spitfires were painted pink during the war. 

Man-O-Man.....What stories others make up just to sell a toy train! Maybe this person believes this in his or her own mind. Before anyone would attempt such a stunt they had better have the facts in print.

Would this be the same person attempting to sell "one of a kind" rare MTH prototypes all over eBay? (Just a thought on my part)

Maybe this person gave up selling used cars?? LMAO!