Hi, im new with a few questions

[johno]

I have an idea for a buisiness, but I have to be very vague about it for obvious reasons....

Firstly I dont know if I can do what I want to do as I am totally new to owning a buissiness.....but basically my first question is this:

Theres a lot of different building products out there such as wood, metal etc...that go under a lot of different brand names. My question is can I take one of those products and sell it as something else under a different name for a different puropose?

So say there is "Smithy's Wood" who just sells wood for all purposes. Can I then sell "Smithy's Wood" as "Johno's cubby house wood" specifically aiming the sale of that wood at building cubby houses by cutting it to size etc...

What im trying to ask is at what point can you buy materials and then package it up and call it something else. Or can I go to a manufacturer and have them sell the same product that is selling as a brand name to me so I can call it somthing else?

[THE SALES WARLORD]

If you take a look at Aaron's outdoor creations he set up a factory that prefab's cubbies and dog houses and bungalows et cetera.

Can't see timber merchants giving you a hard time over what sounds like flatpacking cubbies.

Check with a lawyer though, always better to spend a few hundred than get sued for a few million...

[johno]

Thanks TSW.....I will check it out.

I will try and be a little more specific. Say you have a company that manufactures doors for houses. Say I bought those doors, cut them in half, and sold them as doors for horse barns under a different name. Does that sound illegal?

Or would I have to manufacture my own doors from scratch?

Or can I even sell the products with the manufacturer's brand name, but just call it somthing else more suited to the market I am trying to target, on the website.

So on a website, instead of it being "ABC house doors" it would be "Johno's Barn doors"......etc....or is this breaching something?

At what point can you take a product, chop it up, re-pack it and call it somthing else?

[THE SALES WARLORD]

Look I guess builders have been putting their mark up on top of building products since the sun started coming up in the morning...

Where the legal line is I wouldn't know.

But I know what your talking about doing is being done.

Does that make it legal?

Talk to a lawyer about legal.

If you want a definitive legal opinion that's the way to go, bite the bullet and spend the dollars.

Or if your a member of the MBA they might have an advice line.

[johno]

I guess what im trying to ask is where is the line between raw materials and an actuall product that has been manufactured? You need materials to make products, but is it already a product and so forth?

I will get in touch with a lawyer and ask, but if anyone else has some ideas in the meantime, please feel free to share....

[THE SALES WARLORD]

I reckon that's the way to go to be SURE, but my gut tells me if you saw a solid in half and put paint and pretty hinges on it no one's going to care.
Having said that if you've got a market for the horse doors why not get a stack of them made by a joiner it might cost less that way and if you're having em purpose made it's totally legit.

[johno]

Because im not selling horse doors....LOL....im just trying to give you an example of what I mean without telling you what I want to try and sell.

Another example would be if I wanted to sell "Patio Roofing". So if I bought a heap of those laser light roofing sheets from "ABC lazzerlight" or whoever makes them, could I then cut them to size and sell them as "Johno's Patio Roofing Sheets"? Or say I was selling roofing for horse stables, could I then call it "Johno's Stable Roofing"? Or is this ripping off "ABC lazzerlight"?

I wont give any more examples as you all get the idea....lol

Id rather just try and find out from people who know more than me about this kind of stuff to see if its even doable before I fork out for a lawyer....I just need to get a better idea of what the law is with copyright I guess.

[ray_223]

Hi Johno,

If I was you I'd just check with the manufacturer. I'm pretty sure they would be OK with it because they are selling lots of their products to you.
If you have some fantastic new idea - they will find out about it eventually anyway - as they say to themselves - why are "Johno's Horse Doors Pty Ltd" buying 500 house doors per month!

Just like you need to build relationships with customers you need to build relationships with suppliers as well.

[Emroy]

When I sell printing, I sell the the finished product, say "business cards". I don't specify the type of stock I use.

[Gordon Akman]

If you do some research you will find many companies repackage and re-brand many products. Some are done contractually through business partnerships and others simply come about because the different companies use the same suppliers, manufacturers, or packages.

Some examples:

Milk at your local grocery store is often made/processed in the same factory then poured into different bottles/cartons.

Components in most electronic products are made by the same major Japanese manufacturers then assembled in Korea, Mexico, China etc and sold under many different brands.

Many designer clothing and accessory items are actually made in the same factory with the same fabrics/textiles etc with the manufacturers simply stitching the different fashion labels onto the different items.

The list goes on and on.

To answer your question you will have no problem re-branding products like timber. However, with more elaborate trade marked products you need to be careful.