"Minolta" cameras back on the market...

SQLGuy wrote:

neilt3 wrote:

Do a search on this forum , it's old news , but an interesting story .

It's possible that they just sell cameras branded Minolta after helping themselves to what was classes ( in a court ) as an abandoned trademark .

Their web site says: Minolta® is a registered trademark of JMM Lee Properties, LLC and is used in the United States under license by Elite Brands Inc.

JMM Lee Properties apparently owns several well-known names for use in areas where they don't work or no-longer exist. e.g. Litton and Bendix.

It seemed that there was no connection to Minolta / Konica Minolta at all .

It also appeared that the cameras were of very low quality .

There was a second thread which also involved conversations with a rep from a large American retailer whom I think has links with dpr .

Awkward questions were asked about the validity of selling a camera as a brand to cash in on a well known brand name , where the manufacturer might have no legal right , and the whole thread was deleted .

There was a lot more to it than that though .

On there website it showed in the adverts much to infer that the cameras were still connected to KM .

This seemed to be very misleading , but it was never confirmed if the two manufacturers had any links .

Have a read up on it .

The three threads that remain on these cameras are ;

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4160586 from May 2017

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4201811 from September 2017

And https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4215709 from October 2017 .

The thread that was deleted contained numerous links showing that these cameras are not made under license or have any connection whatsoever to KonicaMinolta .

Going off memory , and if you want the facts you'll have to do your own research , JMM Lee started selling something on the lines of binoculars and branded them as "Minolta" .

KonicaMinolta wasn't happy about this and took JMM Lee to court about it .

JMM Lee argued that the "Minolta" was an abandoned trademark and KonicaMinolta no longer had any legal claim to it .

Turned out the Judge agreed , and as was the tradition with Minolta / KM , they lost again !

( remember Honeywell and Exxon ?)

So when JMM Lee decided to flog some cameras they bunged the "Minolta" name on them too .

KM clearly didn't want to chuck more money on lawyers down the pan , as they'd no doubt have lost that one too , so hence the Minolta branded cameras .

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One thing that people had issue with was that these cameras were advertised as building on the heritage of ( the real ) Minolta cameras and optics .

So whilst they can legally sell a product with the brand name "Minolta" , to claim it was still a product made by KM would have been false advertising ( under license or otherwise ) , if that was the case .

I think this was on both their website and was on such as Adorama's website .

On that thread Helen from Adorama was going to get their solicitors to look into that after the business reopened following the religious holiday they were on .

The thread was deleted before further information was posted or discovered .

However the page implying KonicaMinolta as the maker is not there now ( as far as I can tell ) .

After a quick look on JMM Lees website here ; http://www.jmmlee.com/brand-minolta.html tells in brief the history on "Minolta" .

Whilst it doesn't claim outright that they are one and the same company still making cameras , it does let you believe that , as they now sell things under the "Minolta" branding .

You would think that , wouldn't you ?

And you would expect them to be of KonicaMinolta quality .

I for one would like to know the truth rather than just speculate .... though I know where I won't be spending my money .

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As a side note these are only sold in the USA as far as I know , where the court ruled they could use the "Minolta" brand name . They don't seem to be sold anywhere else where laws covering trademarks might be different , other than grey imports via ebay .