*JimH* wrote:
From http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/dec05/375571.asp
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Bill in Congress takes aim at 'hull splashing' in boat industry
By RICK BARRETT
Posted: Dec. 5, 2005
It's called "hull splashing" when a boat builder makes an unauthorized copy
of a hull design and calls it his own.

With a little luck, Wisconsin marine manufacturers say, proposed changes to
a federal law would end the practice that's bothered them for decades.

Senate Bill 1785 is meant to strengthen the Vessel Hull Design Protection
Act passed by Congress seven years ago but lacking in some important areas,
according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association, a Chicago-based
trade group.

The legislation is co-sponsored by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.). Under it, hull
splashers could no longer copy a design, make a couple of cosmetic changes
and call the design their original work.

"It's surprisingly easy" to copy a finished boat hull, she said. Copiers
use the completed hull to create a mold and special tooling. The mold is
then used to produce multiple hulls of the same design.



Companies such as Genmar Holdings Inc., which makes Carver yachts in
Pulaski, have been dogged by hull splashing, said Irwin Jacobs, company
chairman.

Genmar is one of the world's largest builders of recreational boats. Every
year, the company fires off "cease and desist" letters to manufacturers that
are copying its hull designs.

"They generally pull back and stop, once they know we are aware of it,"
Jacobs said. "But we have also taken some people to the mat over this,"
including suing them for copyright infringement.

The federal law protecting hull designs isn't strong enough and is
cumbersome for manufacturers to use, said David Marlow, a director of
product integrity with Brunswick Corp., a Lake Forest, Ill., conglomerate
that makes Sea Ray, Boston Whaler, Crestliner and other popular boat brands.

"It's hard to say how many of our hull designs have been splashed in the
past," Marlow said. "But we have seen examples of it, and I suspect it's a
fairly widespread practice" that chases the top-selling designs.

Brunswick, which also owns outboard engine maker Mercury Marine Inc., of
Fond du Lac, spent about $25 million in research and development of boating
products in 2004.

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The laws concerning hull design copyright are probably weak for a good
reason.

Can you imagine somebody claiming, "My competitor built a boat that was
pointy in the bow and blunt at the stern! Obviously that's a direct
copy of my design, which is also also
pointy on one end and blunt on the other."

I wouldn't defend hull splashing, put there are probably hundreds of
cases where one boat manufacturer develops a design that is "inspired"
by, (rather than physically molded from), a competitor's boat, and
moving too agressively into that arena begins to tread in the "pointy
on one end, blunt on the other" copyright claims.