René Herse, Compass Bicycles, and Boulder Bicycle?

[Neil Hodges]

Hello everyone,

I know that Jan's company owns the Herse trademarks and markets their cranks under the name, but how does Boulder Bicycle's custom bike relate to it?  I've been curious about this for a while.

Thank you,

- Neil

[Matthew J]

Boulder uses the name under license to Compass.  There is a small royalty fee for each bike made under the Rene Herse name.  

[Justin August]

Yeah. Here are the details as explained by Jan: https://janheine.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/coming-full-circle-with-rene-herse/

-Justin

[John Hawrylak]

Strange, the 2012 write up does not mention a small royalty fee for each Herse made by Boulder.

John Hawrylak

Woodstown NJ

[Justin August]

They said that Mike Kone licenses the name. That could be a per year agreement, lifetime 1 time fee agreement, contract of multiple years, or per bike agreement. It is obvious from that article that Mike Kone is paying some fee for the use of the name, hence the term license.

-Justin

[John Hawrylak]

A fee is optional, not required, from Wikipedia.

The verb license or grant license means to give permission. The noun licence (British,^[1] Indian,^[2] Canadian,^[3] Australian,^[4] New Zealand,^[5] Irish,^[6] or South African English^[7]) or license (American English) refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.

A license may be granted by a party ("licensor") to another party ("licensee") as an element of an agreement between those parties. A shorthand definition of a license is "an authorization (by the licensor) to use the licensed material (by the licensee)."

In particular, a license may be issued by authorities, to allow an activity that would otherwise be forbidden. It may require paying a fee and/or proving a capability. The requirement may also serve to keep the authorities informed on a type of activity, and to give them the opportunity to set conditions and limitations.

I sense from the 2012 write up, no fee is involved. 

John Hawrylak

Woodstown NJ

On Friday, February 26, 2016 at 8:31:06 PM UTC-5, Justin August wrote:

[Matthew J]

A while back in response to a Lovely Bicycle blog comment Jan mentioned that he does receive a license fee from Boulder when they sell a Rene Herse bicycle.  He points out (obviously) that the fee is not much and given the limited volume of RH bikes made it is not a significant source of income.

Mike Kone is a good and honest businessman.  I doubt very much he would want Jan to just let him use the name for free.

[Matthew J]

> I sense from the 2012 write up, no fee is involved. 

1. You sense wrong.

2. I am not sure why this should be an issue.  IP licensing is a significant component of modern day business.  Jan and Mike run good businesses that people on this and similar forums obviously admire.  There is nothing wrong with them engaging in commercial behavior with one another.

[David Cummings]

Nor is it really our business whether or not there is a fee involved or how much it is (at least that's what my momma taught me ;). I believe the OP's question was answered simply, but perhaps a little history is what was requested?

As for the history, which is interesting, I believe there is some info on Jan's site. Short version: Boulder originally bought the brand (with assistance from Jan) and built some bicycles. Jan later purchased the rights from Boulder and now licenses the name to Boulder if people want a Rene Herse. From what I gathered, the Herse family would not have sold the rights if they weren't confident that Boulder was up to the task.

David Cummings
Kalispell, MT