posted 02-05-2008 12:40 PM
I suspect, though cannot be certain, that your friend either was misinformed or that s/he is confusing the parties involved.I believe the source of this story is in the fact that while the Jet Propulsion Laboratory supports NASA missions, it is not a NASA facility. It is owned and operated by Caltech, and as such, the university claims ownership for the intellectual property created at JPL.
This extends to the design and trademarks associated with JPL-built and managed planetary probes, satellites and rovers. As such, when toy and model companies want to create commercial replicas of JPL's craft, they must seek and pay for a license from Caltech.
Mattel purchased these rights to create their Hot Wheels Action Packs for Mars Pathfinder, Galileo and the Mars Climate Orbiter. Likewise, Code 3 Collectibles and SunStar obtained the license for the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity for their respective models.
However, when a toy company in 1997 released a remote control version of Sojourner (not titled as such but obvious by appearance), Caltech pursued the company legally and the remote rover was pulled from store shelves nationwide.
NASA, as a government agency, can trademark their project names and designs (as they did recently with Orion and Ares) but cannot (and does not) charge a license fee for their use.
posted 02-05-2008 06:56 AM
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