Selling another company's product

[skahigh]

If one were to start a business selling another company's products that have then been customised in some way, can anyone explain the legalities of this to me please? Preferably with links to articles or documentation to support it.

Is it legal? Do you need to remove the original company's branding? Is a licence required? Etc. Etc.

Thanks.

[KevinCamaroSS]

Each case has it's own legal intricacies. Need much more detail before being able to comment.

[rog007]

skahigh said:

If one were to start a business selling another company's products that have then been customised in some way

You mean like Overfinch/Litchfield/a PVD Rolex?

[AB]

We rebrand other companies products when we can't import our own quick enough.

They're happy to sell it to us at a discount too as we know what these things cost.

We both make a profit in these instances.

[akirk]

do you mean that (e.g.) you buy their product retail - add something and then sell it as your product? And they don't know...

or you buy their product in wholesale with their agreement / modify it (e.g. stick your logo on) and then sell it?

[skahigh]

What I'm referring to here is buying something that is easily recognisable by it's function / shape / colour, etc. (e.g. an electric guitar made by a major manufacturer), customising it with something like a paint scheme for example and then selling it on as your own product.

It would be better for my purposes if the original company's branding could be retained on the product but, I'm interested to know how that works legally.

At this stage it's just the formation of an idea so I have no idea if the company(s) in question would be willing to sell direct for this purpose or not.

[lostmotel]

If you buy a band X widget, you are normally taken to have exhausted the IP rights and are free to sell it on.

You may find yourself at the receiving end of a trade mark infringement claim if you customise and sell the widgets as brand X, if brand X don't like the customisations. However this is only likely if they are major changes to functionality that could tarnish brand X's reputation.

Taking the brand X's badge off and affixing your own is called reverse passing off and is generally frowned upon, unless you have negotiated an agreement with brand X.

With your example, say you bought in Les Pauls and gave them a lick of paint. I see no problem with you selling them as customised Les Pauls with the Gibson badge still on them.

[skahigh]

Thank you, that's very helpful.

It sounds like it's potentially a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I have to say, I'd figured the manufacturing company may be unimpressed with changes to their product as they may not reflect their own brand values or quality expectations (on the finish for example).

[davepoth]

lostmotel said:

With your example, say you bought in Les Pauls and gave them a lick of paint. I see no problem with you selling them as customised Les Pauls with the Gibson badge still on them.

I wonder whether Gibson might have an issue - you'd have to take the thing to pieces to paint it properly, and they wouldn't be in control of how well it was put back together again. At the very least it would invalidate the warranty, it would be taking work from their own custom shop, and I can see that they might have a case that you're debasing their brand by selling "badly painted and reconstructed instruments" as new ones.

The safe way of doing this would be to offer a painting service, and also a guitar sourcing service, rather than a painted guitar.