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Indian has a, shall we say, strange past. Back in the late 1940's is when the solid ownership of the Indian trademark and copyright started to splinter.

 

Without getting into the history of it, Indian Motorcycle Company of America (Gilroy) owned the rights to Indian in many places, but the UK is not one of them. Now it is the same for Indian Motorcycle International (Stellican).

 

So this guy sells Indian's over there. He is importing them into the USA as the Dakota 4.

 

There are quite a few threads on here about the Dakota 4. Aaron rode one when he was over there a year or so ago.

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What pisses me off is the inaccuracies or incompleteness of the article . . . don't they know about "fact checking"?  For example, the statement about Indian stopiing production in '53, which is partially true - they seem to ignore the 12,000 or so Indians that were made in Gilroy.
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I thought it was a blast!  I actually rode it right before I bought my Chief in early 2002.

 

I had a buddy with me that rides BMWs.  We were passing through to Central Asia and met Alan Forbes in London.  He was very cool and let us ride a couple "Indian 4's" all through the city.  Basically we did the tourist thing: London Bridge, Tower of London, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, etc.

 

Only instead of a red double-decker bus, we had Alan as a tour guide- "Vroom, Vrooom, hey there's the palace, cool, Vrooom..."

 

We rode the bikes for a good long time.   My buddy immediately recognized the trans set up as BMW.  The engine was giagantic.  It had loads of torque and hauled ass.  Of course Alan had some loud pipes installed.  Because of the in-line engine and trans, when you were at a red light and reved the engine you could feel the side-to-side torque, sorta freaky.

 

Overall, I really liked it and had a great time riding it.  We stuck out like whores in church.  Everyone else was riding scooters, rice, and an occasional Brit bike.  When we roared down those cobblestone alleys, people were definitely turning their heads and jumping back.

 

The only downsides were the brakes (drum, but he was going to start using disk), the price was a little steep, and I thought the frame should have been a little beefier.  Of course, the bike is styled "pre-40" so no big fenders either.  He was working hard to make the bikes EPA compliant, and planned to import to the Colonies soon.

 

When I came home I couldn't resist the new Chief with "Indian" engine, and the rest as they say is history...

:moped:  :moped:  :moped:

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I'll add that Alan built his reputation by restoring pre-53 Indians, and is a true Indian fanatic.  Evidently he does link into the Indian "legal rights" honestly.

 

I also hung out at the Ace Cafe, there was a special on Two Wheel Tuesday that described the place recently.

 

:blues:

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I wonder if Stellica is prepares for the legal battle? It looks like a clear tradesmark infringement lawsuit in the works if our new ownership is aware of this UK company. Anyone sent them a link/e-mail?? :shocked:  ???
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I wonder if Stellica is prepares for the legal battle? It looks like a clear tradesmark infringement lawsuit in the works if our new ownership is aware of this UK company. Anyone sent them a link/e-mail?? :shocked:  ???

The Indian name is like an old scooter mama that we called ''Doorknob'', 'cause everybody had a turn. They all got some kind of licencing rights from long ago.

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I wonder if Stellica is prepares for the legal battle? It looks like a clear tradesmark infringement lawsuit in the works if our new ownership is aware of this UK company. Anyone sent them a link/e-mail?? :shocked:  ???

He owns the Trademark in the UK. There is no such thing as an international trademark, you have to apply country by country.

 

The court secured the TM in quite a few countries back in 1998, but not in the UK.

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I would hate to see any turmoil over things like this. Just get Stellican up and running so I can see more beautiful Indians on the road. I would like to eventually see Harley sweat it a bit as Indian pulls a chunk of their total sales, but not to such an extent that indians loose their special and unique place and become a common bike. :)
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I wonder if Stellica is prepares for the legal battle? It looks like a clear tradesmark infringement lawsuit in the works if our new ownership is aware of this UK company. Anyone sent them a link/e-mail?? :shocked:  ???

He owns the Trademark in the UK. There is no such thing as an international trademark, you have to apply country by country.

 

The court secured the TM in quite a few countries back in 1998, but not in the UK.

December 8, 1998

... The decision also gives the company trademark rights in a number of other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Greece. IMCOA (Indian Motorcycle Company of America) affiliates have significant sales of Indian Motorcycle merchandise in Canada and Mexico, thus consolidating North American Indian Motorcycle rights.
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... and there are more.

 

In Sweden you have the Viking / Indian motorcycle

 

In Germany you have the Indian Bicycle Company who also makes a V8 Indian motorcycle. See picture below

germanindian.jpg

 

And they are making the Apache in Australia.

 

There are a few more out there in addition to these.

 

It would be great to see Indian Motorcycle International grow big enough to but these other guys and bring it all under one company. The Viking Foru looks to be pretty well done. And the Apache would be a great Sportster / Dual purpose bike.

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... and there are more.

 

In Sweden you have the Viking / Indian motorcycle

 

In Germany you have the Indian Bicycle Company who also makes a V8 Indian motorcycle. See picture below

germanindian.jpg

 

And they are making the Apache in Australia.

 

There are a few more out there in addition to these.

 

It would be great to see Indian Motorcycle International grow big enough to but these other guys and bring it all under one company. The Viking Foru looks to be pretty well done. And the Apache would be a great Sportster / Dual purpose bike.

 

 

Well I'll be freakin Damned.  I had no idea of these ventures.  Interesting, and thanx for posting that.  Very cool and very new to an uninformed Victory rider.  Yeah, that would be me.

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The Dakota and the Viking are the same bikes...frames, engines,forks,tanks...only difference looks to be the fenders and horn location. I got the HOTS for the Dakota at Bike Week two years ago.
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