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Hasbro wins legal battle against bootlegs in China

Transformers News: Hasbro wins legal battle against bootlegs in China
Date: Sunday, December 30th 2018 4:12am CST
Categories: Toy News, Press Releases, Company News, Knock Offs, Unlicensed Products News
Posted by: Emerje | Credit(s): Hasbro

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Views: 318,752

Fans of "third party not-Transformers", bootlegs, and over sized knockoff products tend to defend them by saying such things as, "if Hasbro cared they would do something about them" or "they're legal in China, things are more relaxed there". But that's never been entirely true. We've seen Hasbro do things like ban their sale (and attempted to do so with fan art) at BotCon and once requested the removal of their coverage from news sites while China has protected three dimensional trademarks (like toys) since 2001. They even introduced the administrative raid system for speedy resolutions and special "well-known" trademark protections based on consumer knowledge.

And that brings us to the current topic. Hasbro has announced on their corporate site that they've successfully defended their Transformers trademark in a criminal counterfeit case in a Chinese court based on an administrative raid from 2017. Hasbro claims this is only the latest in a string of cases with more to come. In this case three defendants were found guilty including two unnamed people that have been jailed and fined and an unidentified corporation that has been fined as well.

Hasbro's full press release can be found below (it isn't very long or detailed). We realize this is a hotly debated topic so we ask for some civility when discussing this in the Energon Pub.

Hasbro Trademark Rights Upheld in Criminal Case Involving Counterfeit TRANSFORMERS Products in China

December 20, 2018

PAWTUCKET, R.I.—December 20, 2018-- The Chinese court in Dongguan city of Guangdong Province has issued a judgment favorable to Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) in a criminal case involving counterfeit TRANSFORMERS products.

Hasbro initiated an administrative raid action in 2017, which was transferred to the Public Security Bureau (PSB) due to the volume of counterfeit product and seriousness of the case. After a thorough investigation, three separate defendants, including two individuals and one corporate defendant, were found guilty of counterfeiting Hasbro’s trademarks and fined by the court, and the two individuals were sentenced to jail time. Thousands of counterfeit TRANSFORMERS products were confiscated and destroyed.

With strong support from various Chinese authorities, Hasbro has initiated many actions to enforce its intellectual property rights in China, and this is the latest of several criminal judgments involving counterfeit Hasbro products issued by Chinese courts in recent years.

“We take the protection of our intellectual property very seriously, and we will continue to investigate and pursue those who infringe on our rights,” said Tarrant Sibley, Hasbro’s Chief Legal Officer. “We are pleased with the ruling in this case, and will continue to vigorously enforce our intellectual property rights to combat the manufacturing and distribution of counterfeit products.”

About Hasbro

Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) is a global play and entertainment company committed to Creating the World's Best Play Experiences. From toys and games to television, movies, digital gaming and consumer products, Hasbro offers a variety of ways for audiences to experience its iconic brands, including NERF, MY LITTLE PONY, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH, MONOPOLY, BABY ALIVE and MAGIC: THE GATHERING, as well as premier partner brands. Through its entertainment labels, Allspark Pictures and Allspark Animation, the Company is building its brands globally through great storytelling and content on all screens. Hasbro is committed to making the world a better place for children and their families through corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. Hasbro ranked No. 5 on the 2018 100 Best Corporate Citizens list by CR Magazine, and has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by Ethisphere Institute for the past seven years. Learn more at http://www.hasbro.com, and follow us on Twitter (@Hasbro) and Instagram (@Hasbro).

How to Tell if your MPM-5 Barricade is a Knockoff, and What to Do Next

Transformers News: How to Tell if your MPM-5 Barricade is a Knockoff, and What to Do Next
Date: Saturday, April 21st 2018 8:56pm CDT
Categories: Movie Related News, Toy News, Knock Offs
Posted by: Qwan | Credit(s): zhaobinis1

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Views: 107,428

A lot of people recently have been getting burned with knockoff versions of the newest Movie Masterpiece Transformer on the market, MPM-5 Barricade. Buying highly-desired figures like this, especially on sites like eBay with individual sellers, can lead to a definite risk of ending up with a counterfeit version no matter how careful you may be.

To help you identify if your own copy of Barricade is a pretender to the Movie Masterpiece throne, Seibertronian zhaobinis1 has you covered with a couple identification tips - plus a guide on how best to refund your purchase through eBay if you did receive a fake! They recommend not shipping the figure back as it's technically illegal to ship counterfeit items like this.

Here is how you can do to get a refund without shipping back the KO figure:

1) When receive your figure, click return.
2) Fill in reason as "KO" or "not authentic".
3) Take pictures of your KO figure. There are 2 places you can easily see that are proves of KO. 3.1) The "POLICE" print was misprinted on the trunk while it should be on the spoiler. This could have been fixed but you will still see marks on trunk. 3.2) In the crotch there are 2 C shaped parts that you won't see the opening, while on official figures you will. Basically KO put these parts on the wrong direction.
4) Do not ship it back, as it is illegal to ship inauthentic items. Wait a few days and ask Ebay to step in (there is a button for it).
5) An Ebay employee will be assigned to your case and usually they will ask you to DESTROY the figure and sign something to prove you did it. Then they will refund you at sellers cost.

As a visual aid to zhaobinis1's descriptions, we also have an image from D-Maximal Primal showing the misprinted "POLICE" decal (and its clumsy reapplication to the spoiler):
Transformers News: How to Tell if your MPM-5 Barricade is a Knockoff, and What to Do Next

Best of luck to all you buyers out there - hopefully this guide can help keep you alert for counterfeits in your police-bot-acquiring efforts! And of course, our condolences to those who did receive a knockoff. If you have any thoughts or tips of your own to share, let us know in the Energon Pub forums. And as always, stay tuned to Seibertron.com for any more Transformers news and useful information!

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