Puddle Duck Trademark Restrictions and Use Guidelines
PD Trademark Ownership Information
The terms: "PDRacer", "PD Racer" "Puddle Duck Racer", and "PDRacer.com" are trademarks owned solely by David Routh. First used in commerce on April 5, 2003, which is also the same day the website PDRacer.com was created. All herein referenced as "PD trademark". David Routh's nickname is "Shorty", and is herein referenced as Shorty.
Any Exchange Of Funds Relating To The PDRacer club or PD Trademark
Shorty created the Puddle Duck Racer sailboat class in 2003 and has been maintaining it ever since - has always offered free plans, free instructions, free lifetime membership, hosted events free to enter and many more services to puddle duckers, all for free.
- If you organize and participate in ways that are free, then you can use the PD trademark for free.
- If you charge (or solicit funds) for anything in relation to the PDRacer class, you need to establish a trademark use agreement with Shorty.
If you are interested in selling your products to puddle duckers, something you might consider is to advertise here at PDRacer.com I purchase ads on other sailing sites to attract sailors to come check out our club and to reciprocate I have ads running on the pages here so that others can do the same at my site. Here is more info about advertising at PDRacer.com
Puddle Duck Racer Related Plans
I started (and continue to maintain) this club as a place where people can come together and share boat building information & plans for free, a place for us to help each other and to enjoy the hobby of designing & building our own boats. When one ducker asks for help, other duckers can share what they have learned and none of us hear "for that answer, you need to pay, buy a set of plans".
Any plans or building instructions which use the PD trademark in any way, must be offered for free, and the rocker shape must match the drawing on the class rules page (same dimensions, same station marks). The plan publisher is solely responsible to make sure the plans meet the current class rules.
If a professional boat designer produced a set of free plans for the duck, it would give duckers the opportunity to see the quality of their plans & instructions. Sort of like free samples at the grocery store, after getting a free taste duckers may be inclined to purchase other plans from them. Plus the free duck plans would be contributing to our free volunteer community effort, a benefit to us all including the designer.
There is no real design work involved, the PDRacer hull shape is available for free on our class rules page, simply add a sail, leeboard, rudder and presto the plans are done. It takes less time to make a set of plans than to build a PDRacer, certainly less effort since plans are just lines & text on paper and no real effort to actually build something like every single ducker has done to build their duck.
This means that anyone who uses the PD trademark to sell plans (or sound-alike plans) is being a parasite, an egregious act of trying to cash in on our community's reputation that we have all worked hard to build with our combined free volunteer effort.
PDRacer Kits / Hulls / Complete Boats Etc.
For selling kits or complete hulls, every kit or hull sold must include an official HIN Plate. It is a simple arrangement and the funds received from the plates will help me continue to maintain and promote the class which we all benefit from. Please let me know when the ducker receives their kit or hull so I can update their benefactor icon.
Notice to Change of Terms
The terms listed in this document and/or class rules & definitions may change at any time at the sole discretion of David "Shorty" Routh.