User talk:Logomage

Re: Mini article
I was intrigued about the paragraph you added about Rover copyrighting the Mini shape. That's a nice detail. Where did you find that out? It's the kind of fact that the Wikipedia fact fanatics will want a reference for. SteveBaker 23:33, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

I was Head of Trade Marks at Rover Group at the time and responsible for registering the classic Mini shape as a trade mark - see bio I also created the name Freelander for Land Rover. --Logomage 23:53, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Wow! I guess that's definitive then.

Hmmm - coincidentally - you are just the person to solve a Mini-related trade mark mystery.

Do you by any chance have any information about this business of the Bond car company owning the name 'Minicar' and threatening legal action sometime after the Mini appeared? I've got some vague word-of-mouth information about that from the Bond car club guys - but they don't seem to be very sure of their facts. It would be nice to know for sure what happened - but I can't find it written down anywhere.

I found out about this quite accidentally. I was the person who split the Mini article into Mini and BMW MINI - and in the course of fixing up the links from other Wikipedia articles, I tripped over the Bridge of Sighs (Cambridge) article that claimed that a Mini car had been suspended under this famous bridge as a student prank in 1958. Knowing full well that the Mini wasn't around until August 1959 - it was obvious that the story was wrong. In chasing down the real facts (with the head librarian at Cambridge no less) - I got a newspaper clipping of the car dangling under the bridge but after looking at the photo and doing a bunch of research, I realised that this wasn't a "Mini" car but in fact a Bond Cars Ltd "Minicar" (The dates were all wrong too - but that's another story). I sent a copy of the article about the Minicar under the bridge to the Bond collectors club - thinking they might find it amusing. I happened to mention that I'm a Mini fan - and their club president told me the story of the threatened law suit over the name "Mini". I don't think it actually went to court - but it would be interesting to know the facts - did it get settled? Did they just drop it?

Who would have thought writing an encyclopedia could be so much fun!

I always liked the name "Freelander" by the way - thanks!

SteveBaker 01:27, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Mini name
The Mini was in fact launched under the names Morris Mini-Minor and Austin 7; it only gained the name MINI some time later as a result of popular usage. --Logomage 09:35, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Warning
You have been asked before not to add links to your own websites. Please desist or you may be blocked from editing Wikipedia. Guy 10:54, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Refuted
The link in question was to a non-commercial article (Domain Names That Don't Work) of general popular interest. It is not therefore a "commercial" link.--Logomage 09:35, 18 October 2006 (UTC)