(a brief discussion regarding chinese and korean tfs (real and knockoff)
2a. Re: So how do we make the kos legit? Posted by: "Jeff" Date: Sat Feb 9, 2008 12:52 pm ((PST)) --- In autocon@yahoogroups.com, "Freds Workshop" wrote: ((As mentioned in a previous posts, kos/people are either good/bad, depending on my/your/their opinion. Glad we could clear that up for you ;-) At one time, people wouldn't accept (and some still don't) the tfs with the small chinese sticker in the corner (again, Ironhide, some cassettes, etc) because they were at the tail-end of the lisencing agreement. If you prefer, you could ignore china's sidestepping the rules, and make the argument that these were special commemorative releases for *their* market, and not intended for release anywhere else in the world (after all, they weren't slated for distribution over here, but were found in-abundance over there). So do we pretend that they had extenuating circumstances, and they can now be welcomed into the family? By that same token.... could the argument be made that Beachcomber (mispelled), the other 'newvintage' carded minis, the dinobots, and mirage....are *also* commemorative release, intended only for *their* market?))If it's not made by or licensed by Hasbro/Takaratomy, it's a knockoff, plain and simple. The 1990's Chinese toys were (in my opinion) made by Hasbro. The 2005+ knockoffs were not, nor were they licensed. That is what decides whether something is real, not its level of quality or anything else.
((isn't it interesting that China would allow these new 'ko' tfs to be made, when their very happy big HasbroTakaraTomy partner has all the 'legitimate' toys to produce?))
China is notorious regarding not enforcing IP rights. You can't rely on the Chinese government to crack down on infringers. There are too many and they don't care enough. This completely fits their modus operandi. The only way to enforce your rights in China is to sue the infringers in a civil suit (as opposed to a criminal one).
That would be the best solution--to sue the source and shut them down. But international litigation is very expensive. That's why you don't see a lot of it. Though, hopefully they WILL shut down the knockoff makers and this is just a prelude to that.
((On Youngtoys/Sonokong in Korea: I am told they have gone to great lengths to strengthen their liscening agreements regarding Tak/Has. Perhaps they have a different perspective regarding kos these days? After all, their country produced some nifty ones as well (oversized prime, the oversize combaticons). One could make the argument that these are kos, but perhaps we should grandfather them in as well, since they're so cool? ;-)
Korea signed the Berne Convention around 1990, after which they enacted laws protecting copyrights, and since then they have been slowly stepping up enforcement of foreign IP rights. That's why the first half of the 1990's had tons of KOs in Korea, and then during the second half they all started going away.