Legal question regarding RIVA Aquarama 8.78

[backman2014]

Hello, this is my first ever forum post of many to come but and I'm sorry to bother you but I have a question regarding a legal matter.

Is there any obstacle legally in building a Riva aquarama replica? I adore the looks but as many of us I can't afford the real deal and hence I want to build one in my shop myself. As in protected brand or something along those lines?

I apologize if this matter doesn't belong in the forum.

 

[FMS]

Selling an exact copy would be inadvisable from a legal standpoint.

Using the Riva Aquarama name would also be inadvisable.

Building a single boat for yourself would be unlikely to be noticed.

To sell, you can have an original design worked up that has certain styling cues in common with Riva without copying their design to an extent that it would infringe.

 

[backman2014]

Thank you. This is just taking the design elements and making a boat for myself.
I have no interest in selling it because it will probably take me over a year of hard labor

 

[Baltic Bandit]

You cannot protect a hull shape from being copied. You CAN protect the original blueprints.

 

[FMS]

You cannot protect a hull shape from being copied. You CAN protect the original blueprints.

The Vessel Hull Design Protection Act gives some protection for a hull shape in the USA. International laws are unknown to me.
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/vessel-hull-design-protection-act-amended-25372.html

 

[backman2014]

I live in Finland and I called up the supplier of feretti in Scandinavia and he said it would be a gray area for the older models. It's a case of me probably not getting in trouble but then again I wanna be absolutely sure before digging deep into my pockets. Last thing I want is someone laying a legal claim on my vessel.

 

[Mr Efficiency]

What plans do you intend to use ?

 

[daiquiri]

If you don't build from some illegally copied Riva plans (meaning that you will be building from some approximate reconstructed or tailor-made ones), if you don't call it Aquarama and if it will be for your personal and non-commercial use, I don't think there is a legal ground for any action against you. Don't build an exact replica and you're safe. There's no need to build an exact replica anyways, with so many beautiful stock plans of classic runabouts around. You could check this thread: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/my-riva-aquarama-plans-5584-5.html#post662666
Cheers

 

[Baltic Bandit]

The "hull design" is so easy to circumvent in ways that have no effect on perf, that ts nt a meaningful protection

 

[backman2014]

I actually have plans through a contact of the spant(think that's what you call it in english, "the skeleton") and the hull design when it comes to the upper parts I'll have to play around on my computer until i get it right. It doesn't need to be an exact replica I just love the general look. My experience is actually in furniture but I got access to an old shipyard in the area of Porvoo together with friends in the business. Although this is my first actual boat I have great people helping me including this wonderful site.

My dad built 4 boats so I wanna go in his footsteps but haven't had the space, money or tools before now. Sorry for the wall of text. I'm contemplating posting the buildlog here amongst this revered crowd but we'll see if I can summon up the courage for it.

Also worth mentioning is that this will be a scaled down version. I just wanna cruise around in a 14-15foot vessel, but I'm absolutely obsessed with the look of the Rivas

//thanks daiquiri for the tip

 

[Baltic Bandit]

Post the blog - the folks here aren't that august

 

[PAR]

You don't seem to be in any legal hot water. The boat will be scaled down and will have different structure and deck, so though it may share some aesthetic commonalities with a similar boat, it's not a copy, leaving you quite safe legally.

This said, the scaling down amount you've suggested, is extreme and should be performed professionally. You just can't reduce the dimensions of the boat and have things come out they way you hope. This topic comes up often here, so do a search for "mechanical similitude " to get an idea of what I've mentioned. Simply put, proportional scaling doesn't work as it might seem.

 

[daiquiri]

Right said. A couple of interesting threads about scaling issues:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/bo...n-talks-up-scaling-up-down-designs-45644.html
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/larsson-similitude-327.html
Cheers