Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Tim's recent post on Annual Reports got me thinking...

You may recall the 'Fly Lotus' campaign from back in the day. I remember a poster up on the wall at the Vancouver BC Lotus dealer that was similar to the ad in the link below

http://www.lotuselan.net/uploads/70_fly_lotus_001.jpg

A number of years ago friend of mine in Vancouver had a very early RHD Plus 2 (Ex Mike Spence, Chassis number ~19?). We both recall the ghosted image of the Fly Lotus tag line in the lower portion of the rear window glass. The sticker had been removed but the lettering was still visible in the glass.

Does anyone have a clue of the font and layout used on these window stickers? Maybe a period picture? I vaguely remember it as a bold italic all caps font similar to the LOTUS sign in Mark's car show pic. Can't recall if it had the Lotus logo.

lotus-elan-f19/group-lotus-1970-annual-report-accounts-t22991.html

I always liked the tag line; reminds me of the 'Whispering Bomb' line used for the BMW 2002. Thought it would be fun to have a similar window sticker on my car.

Agreed!

However, and between u and me, i am Happy i never had to fly in a lotus plane!!! We all know why....

Ok, i asked a company specialized in stickers. They did my licence plate sticker for my 11 and stickers for a rally. I kept good contact since then. I Will order and have a batch printed. I Will then sell them in the appropriate section.

Now said, your opinion does matter. The dull grey represent the windshield. The sticker Will be either rectangular cut or triangular shape cut (more expensive).
The sticker Will be printed inverted to be stuck from the inside of the windshield.

I am hesitating to kill One bird With 2 stones.... I put the forum name under it. Sorry i did not Take the Time to ask the mod?rator authorization. I choosed to place the elanforum.net below so you CAN cut the bottom of the triangle if u do?t Like it.

Of course if the forum owner disagree i just have it erased and we keep on With the standard fly lotus advert! No offense here please.

What size in cm should have the bottom of the triangle 7, 8cm ? More? Or less...

I know you took offence the last time I pointed out to you that you were using/selling copyrighted material without proper authorisation. I honestly wasn't having a go at you but still you took offence and the thread was deleted.

Again I am going to point out to you complete with that again you are trying to have printed copyright materials. Your Fly Lotus stickers have a Lotus logo and text on them, the Piper Aircraft company are still in existence so this too may be copyrighted and certainly the Lotus Elan.net title is Jeff's copyright and as he is planning his own window stickers I cannot see him giving authorisation.

Even if you do plan to go ahead anyway might I suggest in the nicest possible way that you canvas some sort of opinion on how many you are likely to sell as in my view it won't be very many - they are er.. not very attractive .. sorry.

The sticker I recall was more like this.

I cannot recall if it had either the Piper or Lotus logo. It is possible we would not have seen the logo's in the window image.

With a few hundred views and no one able to recall the sticker details, it looks like I could make up something to my memory. Given the concern regarding logo use this might be easier.

Cheers!

Good morning! Nope no offense taken! Forget about the forum elan name, this was just to be helpful for a thread i started on my own but i was too fast not asking the owner opinion nor authorization...
About the little logos, they Will be so small on the sticker i could just have them erased as well. The idea was to reproduce the ad as accurately as possible.

So the last question. Would it be a problem to just have the fly lotus black font on a white triangle?
I was planning a 100 batch, if consid?red not very sexy i could do a 50 batch for intereted forumers. I am listenning.

It is a kind of copy, a repro of a 1970 ad, it does?t harm anybody business, i do?t Think lotus would Take offense... Otherwise eBay seller such as dindong would have stop making repro long Time ago.

Pistacchio sprint 72 wrote:Good morning! Nope no offense taken! Forget about the forum elan name, this was just to be helpful for a thread i started on my own but i was too fast not asking the owner opinion nor authorization...

I would request that you do not included the LotusElan.net name in any activities you pursue.

Pistacchio sprint 72 wrote:About the little logos, they Will be so small on the sticker i could just have them erased as well. The idea was to reproduce the ad as accurately as possible.

So the last question. Would it be a problem to just have the fly lotus black font on a white triangle?
I was planning a 100 batch, if consid?red not very sexy i could do a 50 batch for intereted forumers. I am listenning.

Copyright and trademark rules are simple and far reaching. The issue at hand is not the use of logos. Lotus owns the copyright of the decal. Per copyright laws you are not able to make a copy of the decal.

Pistacchio sprint 72 wrote:It is a kind of copy, a repro of a 1970 ad, it does?t harm anybody business, i do?t Think lotus would Take offense... Otherwise eBay seller such as dindong would have stop making repro long Time ago.

The legal test of "doesn't harm anybody business" is used in intellectual property (IP) lawsuits. The problem is we are in copyright and trademark arena. If a company does not protect their creative products, they loose their right of protection.

If it comes to the attention of Lotus' legal department, they are obligated to send you a cease and desist letter. The letter will inform you of violating the law and request you stop all activities to print and distribute the decals. They will most likely request you to destroy all copies of the decal. If you ignore their request, their next step is a lawsuit.

If you notify Ebay of the copyright/trademark violation, they will remove the seller/product from the website.

Yes, there are many people who make small production runs of reproduction decals and sells them as you have planned. The activity is small and it occurs without the owner of the copyright being aware of it. The person "gets away with it". Life is about risk/reward choices.

jeff

Good Evening Everyone

Just read the post regarding the Fly Lotus sticker, please find attached (I hope) what you are looking for. Another one of my 'important' jobs at Hethel.

All the best
Richard

Richard

Thank you for your interesting post.

It occurred to me that you might have some helpful information with regard to these two recent threads concerning stickers:

nlc-off-topic-conversations-f45/period-stickers-t27142.html

body-chassis-frame-f36/correct-original-labels-stickers-t27237.html

And then more generally concerning Lotus history with these two threads:

lotus-elan-f19/delamare-road-yesterday-and-nearly-fifty-years-ago-t24059.html

lotus-elan-f19/more-interesting-factory-pictures-t18212.html

Thanks

Tim