Class Politics Bye bye LP

The Grand Official ding dong the witch is dead celebration kicks off in Austin on Good Friday . Come to the home town of the ILCA and celebrate the resurrection of Laser Sailing in North America!!
Maybe the new builder will rven Be There!!
https://americasfavoriteboatshop.com/36th-easter-laser-regatta
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Oh, wow!

Questions:
  • what is the secret that LP doesn't want ILCA to see, by disallowing factory visits?
  • what will happen to the trademark? Isn't it still owned by an LP shell company in more than 90 % of the sailing world? ILCA talks of PSA and PSJ boats getting sold in LP territory. When that has been tried before, LP has sued the dealer - and won. Is something different now?
  • getting rid of LP definitely improves the chances of the Laser remaining an Olympic class. Was this move a planned part of the reselection effort?
  • what is the WS view on this? Are they in on it, or even delegated it to ILCA?
  • will any equipment provided by LP become illegal, or are they allowed to sell their existing stock?
ILCA says it will publish an FAQ "soon". We'll see if that raises even more questions.

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  • getting rid of LP definitely improves the chances of the Laser remaining an Olympic class. Was this move a planned part of the reselection effort?
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Can you explain this one?

  • will any equipment provided by LP become illegal, or are they allowed to sell their existing stock?
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That itself would lead to law suits. Over here, Sailcenter sold a whole bunch of new boats from LPE to Masters for the upcoming WC Masters here in The Netherlands, next September.

These people are not the ones that agree with a simple: “Sorry your boat isn’t class legal!”
ILCA needs to explain that.
 
This was talked about in the "Olympic status" thread: the main threat to the Laser in the Olympics doesn't come from competing new boats, but the business structure of the class itself, which may break international competition laws. That would be hard/impossible for the WS (or even the IOC) to accept. (Why this has come up now and not 10 or 20 years ago, is yet another issue to discuss.)

To clear that biggest road block would require rewriting the agreement(s) between the builders and the involved organizations, and knowing LP's track record it's easy to see who would have been the least cooperative party in that.

About the legality of new LP material: there has to be a cutoff point, otherwise LP might go on forever selling their stuff anyway. I guess with hulls you can simply discontinue giving them new stickers and wait until they run out of them. With all other equipment it's a bit more complicated.

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This will be a mess as LP owns the right to the "Laser" trademark and can still market the boat as the "Laser". If ILCA can separate from LP we'll need to change the name and logo on the boat, but it will be the one design class it has always been and will continue to be.
 
Rob B said:
If ILCA can separate from LP we'll need to change the name and logo on the boat
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Not necessarily. My feeling is that that ILCA has looked carefully at the legal questions before this decision (during the last round, they were forced to), and it's plausible that they've found a way of keeping the name. After all, that's essentially what made them side with LP that last time when someone tried to rename the Laser.

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LaLi said:
Not necessarily. My feeling is that that ILCA has looked carefully at the legal questions before this decision (during the last round, they were forced to), and it's plausible that they've found a way of keeping the name. After all, that's essentially what made them side with LP that last time when someone tried to rename the Laser.

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I think the discourse with LP is so high the Laser name may not be as important to ILCA as it once was....
 
Ill try to post a link tomorrow. But has anyone seen lps statement on instagram? Doesnt look good. There not giving up the rights without a fight
 
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