Military Hardware Protected By Intellectual Property?

from the can't-make-that dept

We've had plenty of stories about questionable intellectual property issues, and now Tim Oren has brought up a unique one. It turns out that the makers of various military equipment have suddenly decided that, thanks to current views on intellectual property, they've been leaving money on the table by not forcing companies that make toy models to pay up. In fact, they're trying to charge model makers two to three times the normal price of a full kit. Good to see that whole "encouraging innovation" aspect at work. I'm sure, without this kind of revenue from plastic toys, the defense contractors that make fighter planes and bombers would simply drop out of the business altogether.