Compairing the lawsuit engines

[Anonymous]

It is nice to try to take the high road with LIONEL's actions in the matter.
However, the facts that were determined by the jury after listening to ALL the evidence speaks differently.

We do not have all the facts that were presented. I have read a few of the Korean Depositions that were on the web.( and no one I have heard so far has read all of the transcripts of the trial)

To now second guess the jury is like saying that you disagree with our legal system where all testimony and evidence is weighed in by folks like you and me. Lionel HAD their "say" and it came up LAME.

For Maddox or anyone to now say otherwise makes it appear that the jury did not hear their words. That is simply untrue and should be discounted at this point

As to the award....... well yes it seems a quite high; but here again LIONEL will have another chance to appeal the amount.

As to the original question of the thread; the parts were copied exactly; so isn't the Shays the same and also the articulated engines??

Alan

[Anonymous]

I believe the award to MTH to be excessive . I also believe the lawsuit will further polarize collectors and hobbyists alike. These 2 companies, like so many others in the country, are no longer manufacturers, they are importers.I, for one,will spend my money on any AMERICAN MANUFACTURERS, as few as they may be. Finally, Mike Wolf has finally become what he has wanted all his life, to be a modern J.L.Cowen. Only he has done it with a lawsuit, not talent.

[nblum]

Here's what Frank Maguire, a very experienced engineer whose opinion I for one, trust implicitly, had to say about the issue on the OGRR Forum:

"posted July 31, 2004 03:57 PM
*** Maddox said that he was there at the time, and he does not believe that anyone at Lionel had any knowledge of the situation in Korea (personal correspondence). Nor does he believe that they should have. Let me add a comment from my own experience on that.
My line of work included the design work for bridges, some of which were complex structures indeed, and usually for some governmental agency as owner. At the same time, portions of this work could be required to be subcontracted to meet various required distributional goals. It was a full-time job just to assure that this subcontracted work met the required technical standards, whenever we acted for the owner in this.
At such times, we remained responsible for the technical correctness of the subcontracted work, and yet in most of those cases had no way to know exactly how the work was procured in every detail -- in fact, in general only the independent auditors (ie, accountants) had any authority to look into such matters, and not every job was audited. Now that is here in the US, where payment is strictly limited to the tasks assigned by the government contract. That's a typical American practice (to protect the subcontractors' financial information). As for the technical plans, 90% of an engineer's work is simply to know the technical standards and to apply them -- all technical plans look much alike. There are standards for spacing simple rivets, and there are standards for sizing complex gearing, even in small sizes. So I believe *** Maddox without reservation.
It is accordingly my view that the CTT editorial position, that TCA should find someone from Lionel to expel from its membership, is a most regrettably ill-informed and overly simplistic position.
--Frank Maguire"

[macdannyk1]

Well, hopefully there's some rich person out there that owns both engines. From what I've heard, some "subassemblies" of the Lionel product are "based on" the "stolen" MTH plans.

[Anonymous]

Dave, I know what you mean. I can't answer your question, but you'll find that you WILL get honest answers here without being censored or deleted. This is the best O gauge forum you can find.

[Anonymous]

I asked this question on the ogauge board and it got zapped so will try it here.
It really should be a non controversal question.
All I would like to know is how much of the mth engines that were copyed by lionel according to the verdict are the same.
Does anyone have one of each to tell us if there was any "exact" copying done. thanks for any honest answeres as this is my first question here and could be controversial. dave.