BJD makers threatened by China-based counterfeiter / trademarks

This is just a sad situation no matter how you look at it, I watch YouTube videos and Thursday is when I saw some BJD videos from BJD folks that post box opening and talk about their dolls discussing what Luo was doing. I don't have Instagram and such but it is down right scary that he thinks he can get away with this. I do hope he can be stopped when all said and done.

 

Only the countries where the trademarks are registered under Luo's name will be affected, meaning the legitimate companies can no longer sell the dolls to those countries under their own names. So I don't think the companies should "change their names" just so they can sell to those countries. As far as the news go, only China is the most affected right now. The registrations in other countries are still being reviewed and can be contested on the base that what he is selling are counterfeit items and unacceptable to be imported to those other countries.

 

I understand the situation itself, but I'm wondering what course of action would be the best for a company if the worst should happen. You know, aftermath.
In any case, I'm glad to see the companies aren't going to let Luo walk all over them, I sincerely hope everything turns out for the best.

 

I think it would be prohibitively expensive to start trying to "take over the market" from other manufacturers but it does allow him to take over the recast business in China. Which is weird, the idea that he's the "legitimate recaster" in China. I guess if someone knows the best approach to challenging trademark outside of China perhaps we should collate that information and get it to the legit manufacturers who might need help on that.

Does he take Paypal? I'm not sure how Taobao works. My understanding is that there is a layer of separation between Taobao and the US market. I thought you had to find someone to be a go-between for the transaction. If that's the case he's probably protected. I think other methods would require a purchase to lodge a complaint and that would apply to Paypal as well. Ugh.

As for recasts on Amazon, I have a couple friends that work there at director levels so I'm going to ask them what Amazon's stance is on counterfeit goods. Other people have pointed out that ebay doesn't care at all. Same thing with counterfeit audio or camera equipment on ebay. They don't do anything about it.

 

I'm not sure if anything will come of it, but I emailed Lawful Masses with a brief break-down of what's going on. They might be able to provide a legal perspective of this whole situation.

 

I was looking at this forum few days ago, wondering why there isnt any discussion abt this yet. And in 4 days, it's already at it's 10th page!

But in anyways, thanks for putting this discussion here. It's really sad to know that this is happening. The affected companies and artist must be feeling really upset and stressed over this. I really hope those companies who are gathering their legal team will succeed.

Hope that Luo guy gets punished for what he did..

 

Didn't read all the thread as i already follow the one on Matériel Céleste.

THANK YOU to all of you who help in any way the artists and companies.

About Luo,

Spoiler

she's a woman not a guy (but i think that only change the insult and name calling we would use XD).
And fake BJD (someone proposed to use counterfeit instead of recast, i agree as the first term speaks more than recast) is NOT her first and only fake industry. Seems she's also into false egg making...

 

It really is very disheartening. I follow a lot of sculptors on Instagram and the mood is very somber and angry.
I don't think pro recast people realize that even those unaffected as yet by recasting are afraid and threatened by this sort of thing. It has a very wide effect on the morale of the hobby.

 

This is on the realm of patent trolling. Like if someone copyrighted using elastic in dolls, then sued everyone else. I hope the counterfeiter loses out in court and also are fined heavily.

Remember to avoid e-bay if possible and buy through respected dealers.

 

Oh my! Didn't know that! Thanks for the info. Wow... Speechless...

 

Someone also told me it was a woman, but another person said "he always sets his profiles as male", so whatever. "The counterfeit".
One thing that is puzzling me is that he/she says it is not them, they even said something like "would be really a dumb thing to do", so people are trying to find if there is the possibility of being another luo ligui, apparently there is another recaster that goes by the same name.

 

And now I am curious about that false egg making. I am sorry for offtop, but what does it mean?

 

I was about to ask the same. But than I google searched and apparently its a chinese thing... Like, literally, fake eggs. Apparently it also has resin in it.

 

I’m disgusted. It’s totally unacceptable. And my hope is that the companies take serious measures

 

I am sorry, but I wouldn't trust somebody who made fake food in the past. I don't want to even think what Luo's dolls are made from.

 

I've observed this attitude in FB groups, recast owners and neutrals claiming bullying, "witch hunts", classism/elitism, etc. ...

If I remember, Iplehouse at least already has its trademark copyrighted in the USA? I seem to remember they took that step a few years back.

 

Ah yes, before i forgot Amazon too sells counterfeit BJD. -_-

On the offtopic of false egg,

Spoiler

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10211362571916826

or
There's also false rice, false meat, false cabbage and so on... You just have to search for "false egg".
Heard it's a real problem in China (and it seems other countries are concerned as well).

Sorry for double post.
Madda, Companies will take the measure they can financially take unfortunately. Of course, they take the problem seriously. But they might lack the money to do it. They never didn't do, just they fought how they could.
There are right now many people from our community (BJD i mean) helping them in many ways, there even may be crowfunding to help them. The thing is that most of the companies are just one person, the artist, who has to do several jobs at once (even the so call big companies are often less than 20 or even 10 person). Also they have charges, taxes and many other things to pay.
Some people claim or voice doubt about wether Luo does the recast "legally" like the companies by declaring work, paying taxe, etc. If she/he's not then that is very much more money she/he has that the legit don't. If she/he's doing it "legally", then it is frightening because it means there's so many pro recast out there we thought.

 

Is there a list of doll companies that shut down since the beginning of bjd production ? I'm just curious to know how many artist's had to shut down due to the recast problem

 

That's just terrible! I do not understand people who buy a recast. Do not people understand that they support a thief?

 

*casually steps into the discussion extremely late*

So this news has been going around FB pro-recast groups too and here are some of the excuses I have heard:

"If the companies didn't want this to happen they should've trademarked their names themselves."

"It is their own fault for making their dolls so expensive." (This especially towards Lillycat.......)

It is absolutely disgusting what this guy is trying to do and already managed to do. And there is absolutely no excuse to buy any recasts. I hope the companies can get him arrested, because that's one of the very few ways to make all trademarks invalid...

I feel bad for all the good companies and especially the artist. It won't surprise me if we see more artists disappear because of this.

People just do not realize that BJD's are a luxury item it seems. I have seen so many people with multiple recasts who say they do not have money for a legit. But if they'd just save the money from those (lets say... Four) recasts they could buy one legit.