BJD makers threatened by China-based counterfeiter / trademarks

Very good! Can I quote this to create awareness? At least to my followers on social medias, although not a lot of people.

This letter from Supia literally broke my heart. I'm at a Starbucks and can't stop my tears! All my support go to the companies that are affected!

 

If you want, I can then translate this into German so that German people can understand it as well.

 

Oh some of these statements are so sad, my heart really goes out to these companies :'(

 

Even my husband, who basically has nothing to do with BJDs says that situation is just crazy. If this guy comes through...OMG, that would be a nightmare to all the small-budgeted artists around the world. Just imagine if other people learn of this "business idea" and think it is an excellent way to earn quick money. My mom is also an artist, and this also makes her very sad.
I also considered opening a shop for my shoes, but I think I will refrain from doing so. It is just too risky IMO.

 

Let me start by saying I understand the outrage and sentiments and share them!
I had an idea, please give it a thought and maybe someone in contact with the companies pursuing legal action can pass the idea to them? I guess I am seeing this too much from a business point, but here is what I would like to suggest:
As far as I understand the trademark names are going to be copyrighted, right? It is not about the sculpts?
Well, if it can not be undone then the easy (and money and time friendly) business solution to this is to let go of the old trademarks (yes, they are valuable, but not like they are stock market names), join forces and register ONE trademark in China (and a few more countries to not do it all again next year with the next market) for all legit companies that join forces (something like ‘BJD GAD, Genuine artist doll’ or something better). The companies then can all use this a) as their brand name in the market and b) like a quality sign they share. This cuts out the high costs for all companies involved, allows even the smallest 1-man-band companys in and opens the market in China up to them again very quickly.
I know it’s unfair they might loose the names they created, but that should not have to be the end of the business.

 

Yeah, I also considered opening a shop for many things, but I talked with a specialist and she said you have to trademark it in every single country you want to sell for, how crazy is that? I cant believe we are in 2018 and things still work like this.

Though I agree that would be great to have some kind of cooperative between the artists, thats not really pratical business alike. I also don't think they should let go of their trademarks so easily, they still have chance to win this.

 

@Cynthia in FlintHills i'm so sorry i didn't see the response from supia earlier!! DoA seems to be eating a lot of my notifications..??! ;__; i'm so sorry.
I have added their response to the list. it's so heartbreaking, i got sad just reading it </3 ;___;
one of my friends is saving up to buy their first doll from supia, and i have a fondness for their sculpts too, they're so lovely... and having optional elf ears is such an amazing idea tbh!


also, i would like to announce that i am no longer keeping the tumblr list up to date, only the google docs one. that seems to be the one people use the most, and is the easier one to edit and also to read. i'm sorry if this comes as a disappointment to anyone, but i don't really see the point in maintaining two identical lists when one is clearly easier to use, haha...

you can still absolutely message me on tumblr about the list though!! i recommend using the messaging system rather than asks, because asks can be eaten and vanish if i answer them privately (altho i have xkit so i can go back and check)

 

It would also be good to tell newbies about events and dolls that are in stock. Buying dolls that are in stock are shipped pretty fast, so they don't have to wait months if they are feeling impatient. :>

 

@fransyung : Sure, knock yourself out!

@kelpie : I don't think the law will allow several companies to hide under one name. Also, what are they going to do when the recasters are going to sell their dolls under the same name? It's hard to prove that one company isn't allowed to use it, but another is.

@generalbun : Would you spend thousands of dollars on registering, when you've just made one doll (like Venitu)? Hardly anyone has that much money sitting there in their bank accounts. Especially not start-ups, who need that money to, you know, start their business. And then, when you've registered, you'll still need a lawyer if someone decides to pull the trick Luo did, because you won't be able to find your way in the maze of rules and regulations to show the right people, you are the real owner.

Also, say you did register in your own country and China. Luo thinks of something new and starts a business in Nigeria (only on paper of course) and sells recasts from there. It's shady, sure, but legally possible (businesses in my country do the same to avoid tax bills). Now we're back to where we started. Which is why, if you want to protect yourself, you need to register in every country in the world, because otherwise you'll be a target sooner or later. Most artists can't afford that.

Luo doesn't have to register to protect himself. There is nobody out there leeching off of his work, so he can just choose which countries are the most beneficial for him. That's the benefit of being a criminal: Protection is way more difficult than breaking the law. But still: The fact that - unlike his victims - he's able to register all these trademarks, not only in China, but the EU and the US as well, shows us how rich the guy really is. But hey, he's been stealing for 11 years, so he's got a lucrative deal.

EDIT

Something else, since you seem to be thinking that making dolls is very lucrative. I'll let you in on how this usually goes for me. Average time it took me to complete a doll was 1 year (which isn't that insanely long). I've been selling it for 400 euro's and know that 20 copies is pretty darn good. If I'm able to sell that many, it's been a good year. 400 times 20 is 8000 euros. Production costs of that doll is somewhere around 2000-3000 dollars. I've made 5000 dollars that year.

Rent, food, electricity later and there's no money left for me to register anything.

Now, if you've just created an insanely popular doll, you make more money. Great! Now you're making actual profit. But that money is something you need to get by, during the dry years when your sculpts don't sell as well.
Most dollmakers have 1 or 2 side-jobs, just to get by. They can't afford to spend money on this legal bullshit. They need to eat.

 

Oh hey there's a thread on this, I'm real glad about that. I'm not gonna go on some sort of anti-counterfeit tirade here because DoA is an anti-recast forum so it's kinda preaching to the choir - there's not gonna be anything I can really add to that discussion that hasn't already been said in the past 25 pages. But props to y'all for getting awareness about this outside of Instagram and helping the newbies to go legit, I'm sure it'll be much appreciated.

 

This is utterly heartbreaking - I am sickened, and repulsed by this whole situation. I've always loathed the whole re-cast industry, and its dishonesty, but this guy just takes it to a whole new level of disgust, as far as I'm concerned.

Glad this thread is here to help educate folks, and to discuss how the community can try to help the legitimate doll companies against this criminal threat.

Wondering how many of the affected companies are aware of this? I know several are, but there could be some that are caught unaware. sigh. This is just so awful.

Obviously, one way to help is to get the word out - which I know a lot of concerned people are doing. We're discussing the situation over at another BJD forum I belong to, and I'm going to do a blog post of my own to help boost awareness.

 

@Audrina Mystique listed the ones that ARENT aware:

April Story,
Chica Bonita,
Chicabi Doll,
Cocoriang,
Crobidoll,
Dara,
DollBom,
Doll'n'Doll,
IBJDD,
Kreamdoll,
Leekeworld,
Lina Chouchou,
Monochrome,
Migidoll,
Monodee,
Napi,
Rosenlied
RSDoll,
Sadol,
Withdoll.

 

Sigh. Registrations, trademarks, and the law, it’s all part of running a business, and fees are meant to be calculated into the balance sheet as part of assets and liability. This is the reality, no one is exempted from it just because they’re nice and don’t make a lot of money from their business. Sad? yes, but such is life. Now its just a very expensive lesson.

Worst come to worst, if they can’t fight/win against Luo, the companies can probably change their name and operate under a new name, but they might not be able to sell any old dolls that were under the old name.

 

Since people are still not clear on why, one of the primary advantages that would motivate Luo to register all of these trademarks despite the expense is the protection of his/her current business. Since sales platforms are facing more pressure from consumers to ban the sale of counterfeit goods, the obvious solution is to not appear to be counterfeit. Even if the legit doll artist makes the ownership claim personally (usually a requirement), those sales listings won't be removed because this thief can actually point to these registrations as proof of right to sell. Even if these registrations aren't used for extortion or blocking legit sales, that's a huge deal since it protects all current business operations.

 

Can you please copy the text of these into a post? These images are not loading for me (and the site launched a browser hijack ad when I tried). Copying the text here will protect against loss of the images in the future as well.

Trademark and copyright are different things. Knowing the difference is important for understanding the issue.

"The Difference Between Copyright and Trademark. While both offer intellectual property protection, they protect different types of assets. Copyright is geared toward literary and artistic works, such as books and videos. A trademark protects items that help define a company brand, such as its logo." (Differences Between Copyright and Trademark) Recasters have been attacking copyright for years, it's what they do. This is a direct attack on the companies themselves, and "giving up" both sets a very bad precedent, and doesn't prevent the companies from being damaged further. If Luo holds their trademark, in one or more countries, they don't have any way to truly prove they're the real source, and giving all the companies one name removes their individual identities.

The dolls are not what are being attacked this time, it's the companies' identities. The things they've built up and cultivated for years. The branding on their dolls, their CoAs, their websites, their domains, their packaging, everything. Even if you don't consider that someone finding an old Soom (for instance) will never figure out on their own that the company is now called Moos, and the company using the name stole that identity, these are small companies. The cost of rebranding could very well kill them. At least they can band together and share the burden of this fight, but they can't do the same if they lose their identities.

 

I had a dream about this last night! In my dream the reason there was such confusion about which Luo this is (and what sex this Luo is too) was because someone benevolent had trademarked the name to stop the actual recaster Luo from using it anymore and was buying all these trademarks to gift to the legit companies and stop Luo from selling counterfeit dolls under his/her own "brand" anymore.... THEN I WOKE UP

St. James: I've thought about that angle too, we have absolutely no hope of getting recast sales threads pulled from Ebay and Amazon now if the sods can point to their official documentation and claim that they are the REAL Soom/Volks/Luts, etc, etc... just infuriating....

 

I understand. Hence, ‘worst comes to worst, if they can’t fight /win’. Let’s hope they can get over this loathsome difficulty.

 

awn, thats so cute! my dreams are usually blood baths... great thing I still didnt dream about all this drama

 

flornosertao: hee hee, it sure makes a change from the blood baths

 

I forgot to ask, DOLK said they are not affected by this problem, but did they say why? Do they have their name trademarked in China already (since there is a DOLK Taobao/China)?