Hey folks,

My story is a little long but bear with me so that you can really understand what I am offering here.

After a short love affair with the Curta, I decided that I just HAD to start a company and make replicas of these wonderful calculators. I had dreams of making them to their original specifications but to also offer collector's editions in a couple of different colors and to make some minor changes so that nobody would try to sell them as originals.

I started by contacting Elmar Maier. The folks on this board probably know who he is but in case you don't, Mr. Maier was the original engineer who was hired by Curt Herzstark to make the Curtas production-ready. He is an old man now, but lucky for me, he is a true gentleman and knows how to email. We exchanged many emails and through our rough German to English and English to German translations, Mr. Maier agreed to sell me the rights to his original drawings in order to have the replicas made. He spent some time at his local copy shop having all 200 drawings scanned and then sent me all of the digital files.

I then formed a limited liability company in Virginia called Contina LC (the American version of Contina AG) and applied for the "Curta" trademark. Because the Curta patent had expired, I knew I would have no problem there. However, I was less sure about the trademark. I did a search on the US trademark database and discovered that the trademark had been abandoned so i applied. A few months later, I was informed that the trademark would not be granted because the trademark office now considered "Curta" a generic term that applied for all handheld mechanical calculators. I thought that was silly so I appealed the decision with the help of a lawyer. And I won! The "Curta" trademark has been awarded to me as the sole entity that can use the name commercially.

My next step was to figure out how to get this thing made. I originally decided that I wanted the replicas to either be made in the US or Liechtenstein. I soon dropped that idea because of cost. I then contacted some firms in China and India. An Indian company did quite a bit of research for me to figure out how much effort and cost it would take to make an initial batch. I was disappointed to learn that the cost would end up being more than what would be feasible. Sadly that is where I am giving up.

So, I now have a fully formed legal company that owns original drawings to the Curta and the official trademark to brand them. I'd like to pass the torch on to someone else who has better connections or manufacturing knowledge than I do. The original drawings (digital version) are included in the sale (with Mr. Maier's permission) and all rights to the comapny and the trademark (which was very hard to get). I'll even throw in the domain names: thecurta.com and continalc.com. I'll consider any offer you make. I would at least like to recoup the money I put into this venture.

Let me know if you have any questions by PMing me.

At least I still have my Curta type 1.

Jordan

Just a follow up...

I have had a couple of you fine folks email me with some great advice about what to do with my little project. But at this point, I need to pass the mantle on to somebody else. I'd like to sell these drawings (see description above) and I'll consider the American Curta trademark a free addon. I'd love to see somebody do something with the trademark. It was really hard to get. Imagine owning digital scans of all of the origianl Curta engineering drawings. They don't exist anywhere else on the internet. AND... owning the Curta official trademark for the United States. PM soon or I'm going to have to go a different direction with these.

Thanks!

Jordan

Sold! Thank you.

If anyone has any ideas of what to do with the trademark before it expires, please let me know.