Chinese counterfeiter is trademarking bjd's

[quidam]

This was posted on DOA this past week. I'm posting the link for anyone interested in the information, since not everyone visits there.

It's one of their open threads, so you don't need an account to read it. The discussion thread linked in the statement thread is also open for reading.

https://denofangels.com/threads/bjd-makers-threatened-by-chinese-counterfeiter.773786/

I'm hoping something can be done to take him down, as it will definitely affect the future of the hobby if they cannot. I'd hate to lose companies and artists over this.

[Kirahfaye]

When you consider the lackadaisical way the Chinese government reacts to claims from other countries of forgery, is it any surprise? And with the equal lack of concern for and protection against the selling of recasts and fraudulent merchandise by companies like Ebay, what is there to stop this criminal or those like him from doing whatever they want?

[quidam]

Going through all of the information it looks like he's (she's?) not just applying for trademarks in China, but also in the US, EU, Australia, and Canada.

I do wonder how easy or hard it might be to actually do this? It sounds like China is relatively easy. It's horrible to think that one person could possibly shut down the market for legit bjd's in multiple countries. It would be bad enough if it were just China.

It sounds like many companies are starting to respond and looking into legal actions. I worry about the smallest of the companies, not that many of them would be considered truly large. But the lack of funds to defend their own name if a terrible thing.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

From comments I've seen on a doll FB group, even pro-recasters are turning against him now.

[Iwa_Hoshi]

Ah thanks, was wondering where I could find a site to keep track of situation.

[Stormlight]

From comments I've seen on a doll FB group, even pro-recasters are turning against him now.

Pfft. That's probably only because the pro-recasters realize that if this asswipe succeeds in his venture, he could end up driving a good many companies completely out of business, thus ending the supply of LEGITIMATE sculpts for recasters to buy and copy and sell to them. It'll affect even them in the end, as well. I'm sure if the recasters wouldn't be at all affected, the people who buy them wouldn't give a rats ass about it.

[victoriavictrix]

An obvious low-cost solution for a small company would be to register a slightly different name and slightly different trademark, then make a big announcement about the name change.

Like Faeryland for Fairyland.

[Stormlight]

That is a great idea. Maybe someone could suggest it to the companies?

Although I think the main problem is that a lot of the companies can't AFFORD to Trademark anything. Especially the smaller artist companies who have even more limited funds. Getting their names and marks trademarked might be enough to run them out of business if they can't make up the funds spent on that cost.

[quidam]

This guy must be making quite a bit at counterfeits to be making enough to try to trademark so many company names in so many countries.

A trademark in China alone looks to be around $1,000 (USD). If you add on all of the multiple countries he's trying to get and estimate they might be the same...yeah, that could be impossible for tiny companies, even larger ones might have an issue.
And if I were a startup artist trying to get a foot in, thousands would have to be added onto my pre-production costs to try to prevent this from happening to me.

Trademarking a name change isn't a bad idea (for those big enough to afford it), but I can only imagine how many more issues that will add to the second hand market.
Plus it's frustrating to think that if I were a company owner, I would have to change my well established name because of some idiocy like this.

Seriously...why can't all people just be decent and find legit ways to make money?

[Kirahfaye]

It's possible that he's just trying to see what ones he can actually get the trademark and company names on, figuring that a majority of them will be denied outright. There's something to be said about flooding requests to get something sneaked through that might not otherwise fly.