OK buckle up because this is a weird one. If you know your card history as many of you do then you know what Odd Rods are, if you don’t then this is the short sweet non Scott Baio version. (that will become clearer later) back in 1969 Donruss wanted a set of cards that had monsters driving cars, they hired B.K Taylor to draw them and and the great Odd Rods set was born. These stickers/cards were a hit and several sets came out during the 1970’s.
Now Donruss like Odd Rods is no more, the company folded years ago, taking many of the old sets with it, accept apparently that’s not the case, you see a Limited Company by the name of DZ Hart has claimed ownership of the trademark and rights to the Odd Rods brand which they say they acquired as recently as 2006. DZ is a difficult company to get in touch with and they so far have not responded to our emails. What I can tell you about them is that they have virtually no public identity on-line with that company name, aside from the facebook page I linked to above, but the folks behind it (David and Zola Hart) are the owners and operators of Tart Optical and the now closed yet almost but not quite wittily named Four Your Eyes Optical boutique in LA. This is a company that sells tricked out and pimped up second hand sorry “Vintage” style glasses frames to the stars, and err.. anyone else with money. They did sell a pair to Johnny Depp though back in 2004 so ummm that’s nice.
They have moved onto Odd Rods and employ this marketing firm which has spent some money on promoting brand image and trying (a little to hard in my view) claw money from potential investors. They even have yes you got it Scott Baio to do a promotional video for the brand… yes thats right Chachi loves money Odd Rods…. (while disliking the unemployed and first lady). Now my understanding is that Scott is available for two fingers of KitKat and return bus fair but hey you know.. it’s still better than… I don’t know I guess getting your mom to do the voice over… then again I don’t know your mom so I might be wrong. You can really see the love he has for the topic if you watch the video…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cwmGxWBRjI
I like it best when he talks about “Your Revenue + Odd Rods” I had my wallet out at that point… Anyway they say it’s a property that they own and they have the Odd Rods Domain as well. But the ownership it seems is a matter of some dispute and this is where it gets MORE complicated. B.K Taylor says the exclusive intellectual property rights are his. Now he did draw all of them some 40 years ago, so you know creators rights do spring to mind. He instructed his lawyer to contacted some potential investors that were going to do business with DZ Hart and the Odd Rods brand (they wanted to make animated online adverts) and let them know his side of things. These investors in turn got in touch with DZ Hart (as you would) to find out what’s going on. B.K Taylor maintains that he owns the Odd Rods as he created all the art for them, DZ Hart disputes B.K has or ever had exclusive rights to the brand. Enter the lawyers.
To make things more confusing it seems DZ Hart had apparently previously HAD an arrangement with B.K Taylor (again remember he created all of the first Odd Rods). They say B.K Taylor was going to provide artwork and act as a consultant on future projects involving the brand. According to DZ Hart no work had been done by Jan 2009 so the agreement was cancelled as it was never acted upon, with all rights then reverting to DZ Hart Ltd. At the same time however they say that if any rights are held by B.K then they are in the public domain because he abandoned said rights… this sounds a lot like “I want have the cake but if it’s yours I’m going to eat it anyway“… DZ Hart have taken this to court in California seeking Declaratory Judgement to offer relief from any proposed litigation B.K may attempt to take. This is a peremptory measure seeking the clarification via the courts as to the ownership of the Intellectual Property rights surrounding the Odd Rods. DK Hart in layman’s terms wants the court to say several things:
DK Hart want the court to say:
B.K Taylor does not have exclusive rights to the Odd Rods property
B.K Taylor can not attempt to enforce any disputed rights issues on DZ Hart or it’s business partners
DZ Hart and any or all of it’s business partners are free to commercialize (i.e profit from) not only the Odd Rods but also any derivations, and or future versions of them with no interference from B.K Taylor (or his lawyer if we are being pedantic which clearly we are.)
DZ would also like costs and damages.
Clearly B.K Taylor would like none of that to happen.
The motion they filed with the court was on the 17th of June and it gives B.K Taylor 21 days from his receipt of the documents to respond to them. That should be sometime next week so stay tuned, and we will cover his response as fully as we can.
More reading on this: IP Trademark Site
Comment:
It looks a lot like BK Taylor and David and Zola Hart had an agreement that fell apart and now B.K Taylor, the guy who created all of these cards in the first place is landed in a situation of fighting for any rights to his creations. It’s a bizarre situation over a very old card set, but it would be great to see some new B.K Taylor art on a set.
I have been unable to find contact details for B.K Taylor if anyone has those we would love to talk to him.