Here’s a International Game Developer's Association forum link which shows a 2004 discussion of this very issue:
http://www.igda.org/Forums/showthrea...threadid=13370
Some interesting highlights:
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Originally Posted by DavidEllzey
It seems that Northrop/Grumman company demanded an extremely high fee for the use of the aircraft and ships that their current family of acquired companies (Northrop, Grumman, Republic, Vought, etc...) manufactured during WWII. Given the low budgets that flight-sims work with, especially our Russian colleagues, the developers were unable to pay the fees. Northrop then went to the publisher who to the best of my knowledge paid the fees but deducted all or some of it from the developer's payments...
...I am attempting to locate the Northrop attorney for clarification but that may take a little while, I will update as I find out more.
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Originally Posted by DavidEllzey
Here is an update:
I spoke to Mr. Patrick Joyce (310.201.3384) at Northrop this morning. He is the person who handles such things for their company; it might even be his only responsibility. Anyway, he was the person who requested TM fees from the Russian developer and eventually received said fees from the French publisher. He is not an attorney but here is what I could gather from our little chat.
Northrop/Grumman is requiring trademark licensing fees for the use of any aircraft, ship, boat, vehicle or weapon system that they our any of their acquired companies have ever produced. They maintain that all these things are covered by either registered trademark or “common law” trademark, sometimes both.
Upon further inquiry, he stated that all video/computer games, motion pictures, television, and toys are subject to these fees. When asked about literature, he said no.
I brought up the fact that the US government purchased these items and that they would seemingly be public domain. He said no, that both Northrop/Grumman and the US government own rights to the items.
To facilitate a good ongoing investigation, I’ve kept the discussion pretty light and open to continuation. Without alienating this guy (as least not yet) what are the questions I need to ask him?
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And here is an HMA (Hobby Manufacturers Association) June 2007 memo which also discusses the issue as well, this time from a hobbyist standpoint:
http://www.hmahobby.org/pdfs/HMA-Mem...-Memo-6.07.pdf
Companies like Revell-Monogram say that military products that have been paid for by the US government through taxpayer money are in public domain and not private property. Meanwhile, the defense industry completely disagrees.