Well done Mick, I'm sure your findings must have helped Mike Cooper realise what was happening and hopefully it is true that he will bring back some of the high quality original parts.......never really understood why he did not carry them on anyway in his original agreement with BMW or why he allowed all the 1990's Cooper Works records to be thrown in a skip? I'm sure BMW & BMH would have no problem with him supplying quality classic parts under licence today or as part of his original deal with them back then.
Sadly it is clear when visiting Mini shows that many Mini owners/enthusiasts are willing to buy poor quality fake parts if they are cheap off 'traders'.....but either live to regret it when they need replacement again shortly after or just don't fit......and then they wonder why their Mini's are so unreliable and why BMH/BMW have to protect the classic Mini brands reputation......
Perhaps you should also have contacted BMH (British Motor Heritage) who act on BMW's behalf to protect the MINI/Mini brand and trade marks (and Mini Cooper).
BMH Quote:
"BMW lawyers are looking for abuses of the logos and the brand and legal letters are intentionally intimidating, clearly stating the rights being contravened."
Brand these days is important throughout the world so all big companies are being very careful to protect their image and rip offs from China and elsewhere.
Like BMW with 'MINI' related trademarks, Volkswagen AG, of Wolfsburg, Germany, has recently asserted its right to the trademark ‘Beetle’ and has served notice on many of the classic VW Beetle companies using their trademarks for selling fake parts without permission.
Ex-editor of Miniworld magazine Monty Watkins interviewed John Yea Managing Director of BMH (British Motor Heritage Ltd) about this topic related to traders in the Summer 2010 edition.
Extracts from MiniWorld article below:
"John Yea of BMH defends BMW's policy on protecting the Mini brand saying they have put a lot of effort into the BMH company when it was privatised in 2001 and facilitated the move of Mini tooling to BMH with their full encouragement, permitting the continued supply of bodyshells and genuine replacement body panels and subframes. He thinks a lot of classic Mini people are being misled. BMW have a lot of respect for the Classic Mini and they have tried very hard to get their managers to understand. They are very concerned how they are perceived by the classic Mini world but the Mini brand is extremely important and must be protected against imitations. A lot of genuine parts are no longer available and people should be ashamed at some of the stuff thats out there. For example, the genuine Rover Mini subframes had a minimum number of spotwelds deemed to be safe, researched in much detail. Cheap aftermarket copies have fewer spotwelds and people need protecting from this. Part of our role is to assist BMW, Licensing is to maintain quality. The problem we have now is that an awful lot of stuff is coming in from super cheap sources. BMW lawyers are looking for abuses of the logos and the brand and legal letters are intentionally intimidating, clearly stating the rights being contravened. If you get the letter please stop selling and tell us who manufactures the products in question. Manufacturers should come to BMH to assess the quality of the product, if quality is good enough but sales very small, we would probably charge a peppercorn sum, rather than a percentage of the wholesale price. Small scale makers should come and talk to us first if quality is good."
BMW must approve use of Mini trademarks and logos, Triumph and Riley are also retained by BMW.
Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. (I think?) in China need to approve anything Austin, Morris, Wolseley and MG.
Tata in India own Land Rover and also own the Rover brand (originally bought off BMW by Ford).
BMH - Marques, Trade Marks, Copyright & Part Numbers:
http://www.bmh-ltd.com/trademarks-useof.htm
Martin
), but there were/are many fake parts available at silly very inflated prices and very very poor quality,lots by a welsh M.C.R. member/Forum user and regular ebayer :- pauldanielfoley,he now uses something different and advertises in miniworld and minimag...but is from Torfan area of wales) I purchased quite a few of these "hooky" items and had them verified as fake by both minisport (authorised distributor) and others in the Lancs Region of the M.C.R. ,as well as myself performing full dimensional inspections and spec/material analysis with c.n.m. machines and other engineering techniques.
Some of their own stuff could do with a bit of quality assessment that's for sure.