(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.