Harmony-Gold is suing USA Hasbro over SDCC TF VS G.I Joe Exclusives.
http://www.allspark.com/content/view/11373/
Harmony Gold, the main distributor of Robotech, have filed against Hasbro claiming that the 2013 SDCC GI Joe vs. Transformers exclusive set violates their intellectual property. Or more specifically, the Skystriker decoed as the G1 Jetfire toy. Since that original Jetfire toy lifted its color scheme directly from the Macross toy from which it was licensed 30 years ago, Harmony Gold believe this new toy is too close to their property.
LOS ANGELES - Hasbro's toy in a box labeled "G.I. Joe and the Transformers ... The Epic Conclusion" violates Harmony Gold-USA's copyright license on the animated Japanese TV series (1982-84) from which the epic conflict originated, Harmony Gold claims in Federal Court.
If anyone remembers Harmony-Gold if infamous for doing this sort of thing. They are the reasons the Robotech reissues,new molds & MP toys were not allowed to be sold in America by another company.
Personally I find this all kinda pathetic & Scrooge on Harmony-Gold's part,As the ones who trully suffer from all of this is the fans/customers.
HTS.com is selling the SDCC 2013 Jetfire GI Joe/TF gift sets
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Tigermegatron
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HTS.com is selling the SDCC 2013 Jetfire GI Joe/TF gift sets
Last edited by Tigermegatron on Wed Oct 16, 2013 11:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
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BWprowl
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Re: Harmony-Gold is suing Hasbro over SDCC Exclusives.
Yeah, I'm not surprised at all. Given that Harmony Gold 'owns' Robotech/Macross in the US at all due to some fast legal moves and insist on doing NOTHING with the property over here other than sitting on it and suing people when they see the chance, this should have been expected as a natural move for them.
Anyway, they really shouldn't have a case. From my understanding, Jetfire's color scheme was actually one that was made specifically for TF, and didn't show up in 'Robotech' anyway. At any rate, Hasbro just needs to point to Skyfire from the G1 cartoon and go "It's a toy vehicle from a property we own colored like a cartoon character from a show we also own. Suck on it."
And then this misfire of a lawsuit finally bankrupts Harmony Gold and they're forced to sell off all their assets, including the Macross rights which go back to Bandai FINALLY allowing them to release stuff like Macross F and all the various toys and model kits over here, resulting in world peace. In my dreams, anyway.
Does anyone own Dorvack in the US? They're not gonna sue Hasbro over the upcoming Whirl, are they? (I'm actually kinda curious about how that one'll go over in Japan)
Anyway, they really shouldn't have a case. From my understanding, Jetfire's color scheme was actually one that was made specifically for TF, and didn't show up in 'Robotech' anyway. At any rate, Hasbro just needs to point to Skyfire from the G1 cartoon and go "It's a toy vehicle from a property we own colored like a cartoon character from a show we also own. Suck on it."
And then this misfire of a lawsuit finally bankrupts Harmony Gold and they're forced to sell off all their assets, including the Macross rights which go back to Bandai FINALLY allowing them to release stuff like Macross F and all the various toys and model kits over here, resulting in world peace. In my dreams, anyway.
Does anyone own Dorvack in the US? They're not gonna sue Hasbro over the upcoming Whirl, are they? (I'm actually kinda curious about how that one'll go over in Japan)
Re: Harmony-Gold is suing Hasbro over SDCC Exclusives.
Robotech is still a thing?
Well, I mean, clearly it isn't, but just enough of a thing to sue people over. Bit petty. Especially considering Robotech isn't exactly an *original* property...
Well, I mean, clearly it isn't, but just enough of a thing to sue people over. Bit petty. Especially considering Robotech isn't exactly an *original* property...
COME TO TFVIEWS oh you already did
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Harmony-Gold is suing Hasbro over SDCC Exclusives.
I was wondering what US company owned the rights, considering we never actually see any Robotech/Macross figures released Stateside anymore...BWprowl wrote:Yeah, I'm not surprised at all. Given that Harmony Gold 'owns' Robotech/Macross in the US at all due to some fast legal moves and insist on doing NOTHING with the property over here other than sitting on it and suing people when they see the chance, this should have been expected as a natural move for them.
Yeah, that's my understanding as well. Goes to show how sue happy Harmony Gold is I guess...From my understanding, Jetfire's color scheme was actually one that was made specifically for TF, and didn't show up in 'Robotech' anyway.
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Tigermegatron
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Re: Harmony-Gold is suing Hasbro over SDCC Exclusives.
Thread info update from Hasbro: Hasbro didn't sell the SDCC Jetfire on their web site yesterday. Here's a short reason why below: http://www.allspark.com/content/view/11376/
Earlier today we found out that Harmony Gold had filed a suit against Hasbro claiming that the Jetfire in this year's SDCC GI Joe exclusive set violated their Robotech intellectual property. Later, that very set was suspiciously missing from HasbroToyShop.com when the site listed the other SDCC exclusives. If you were wondering whether the two bits of news were connected, wonder no more! Check out what a poster on the 2005 Boards found out when on a call with HasbroToyShop:
A fan called HTS to ask about the Crossover Set. I didn't expect much info but figured I would try. The girl I spoke to was very nice, she said all they were told was that there was a lawsuit and that they were not selling them. She would not elaborate or disclose anything else. I explained that I didn't want to stalk the website if they weren't going to release anymore, and she told me that she didn't want to tell me not to keep checking, because you never know, all she knew is that they weren't included with the rest of the items today because of the lawsuit. Take that for what it's worth, I guess.
Earlier today we found out that Harmony Gold had filed a suit against Hasbro claiming that the Jetfire in this year's SDCC GI Joe exclusive set violated their Robotech intellectual property. Later, that very set was suspiciously missing from HasbroToyShop.com when the site listed the other SDCC exclusives. If you were wondering whether the two bits of news were connected, wonder no more! Check out what a poster on the 2005 Boards found out when on a call with HasbroToyShop:
A fan called HTS to ask about the Crossover Set. I didn't expect much info but figured I would try. The girl I spoke to was very nice, she said all they were told was that there was a lawsuit and that they were not selling them. She would not elaborate or disclose anything else. I explained that I didn't want to stalk the website if they weren't going to release anymore, and she told me that she didn't want to tell me not to keep checking, because you never know, all she knew is that they weren't included with the rest of the items today because of the lawsuit. Take that for what it's worth, I guess.
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BWprowl
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Re: Harmony-Gold is suing Hasbro over SDCC Exclusives.
I can't believe Hasbro's just rolling over for these losers. It's pretty shisety that they're able to cockblock the wide-release of this toy just by throwing a fit, especially when the toy in question doesn't actually have anything to do with Macross/Robotech.
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Tigermegatron
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Re: Harmony-Gold is suing Hasbro over SDCC Exclusives.
Technically,Hasbro at the SDCC Convention was able to sell all those Skystriker Jetfire toys. For all we know Hasbro might have sold hundreds/thousands of them at SDCC Convention.BWprowl wrote:I can't believe Hasbro's just rolling over for these losers. It's pretty shisety that they're able to cockblock the wide-release of this toy just by throwing a fit, especially when the toy in question doesn't actually have anything to do with Macross/Robotech.
Perhaps the volume units of the Jetfire Skystrikers were so low for the HTS.com site. it really didn't matter if hasbro were able to sell them or not. As long as they sold the bulk of them at the SDCC convention,then that's all that mattered.
FWIW,Hasbro can always create dummy accounts on ebay & sell those remaining jetfire skystrikers on ebay. Worse case scenario Hasbro sells the remaining skystrikers jetfire's to bbts,tfsource or whatever...--->It'll be kinda hard for Harmony-gold to do the research/investigating to see if Hasbro is selling these or not.
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Tigermegatron
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Re: Harmony-Gold is suing Hasbro over SDCC Exclusives.
I don't think Harmony-Gold has much of a suing case against Hasbro. Due to the SDCC 2013 Skystriker Jetfire having a different jet design compared to the 1980's Robotech/Jetfire jet toy design.
It'll be a up hill battle for Hamony-gold to sue hasbro over the color scheme of SDCC Jetfire. Due to the jet design being different hence the color scheme pattern needing to be applied differently to the skystriker jet in order for it to fit on the toy.
As most know Hasbro modified the original robotech jet color scheme that got applied on 1985 Jetfire. Hasbro did a lot of color swaps & created different stickers designs,so even trying to fight Hasbro in court & winning is a uphill battle for Harmony Gold.
It'll be a up hill battle for Hamony-gold to sue hasbro over the color scheme of SDCC Jetfire. Due to the jet design being different hence the color scheme pattern needing to be applied differently to the skystriker jet in order for it to fit on the toy.
As most know Hasbro modified the original robotech jet color scheme that got applied on 1985 Jetfire. Hasbro did a lot of color swaps & created different stickers designs,so even trying to fight Hasbro in court & winning is a uphill battle for Harmony Gold.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Harmony-Gold is suing Hasbro over SDCC Exclusives.
I wouldn't say Hasbro is rolling over. It makes sense given the legal issues filed against them that they wouldn't sell any more, at least until the issue is resolved.BWprowl wrote:I can't believe Hasbro's just rolling over for these losers.
Part of Harmony Gold's demands is that Hasbro recalls all of the product already sold, and that Hasbro turn over all product and profits they made over to them. So it wouldn't matter if Hasbro sold all of them already or not. And we know they hadn't, they were making it available for sale through their website.Tigermegatron wrote:Technically,Hasbro at the SDCC Convention was able to sell all those Skystriker Jetfire toys. For all we know Hasbro might have sold hundreds/thousands of them at SDCC Convention.
Re: Harmony-Gold is suing Hasbro over SDCC Exclusives.
In legal terms, Harmony Gold has....not a hell of much to work from.
They have distribution rights that would arguably qualify as squatting (acquiring the rights to IP and then doing nothing but "defend" them from infringement). This could cost them those rights or obligate them to use those rights. And, there is no way that HG has more money than Hasbro.
The basis of their complaint is.....that Hasbro used tooling that they own (the Skystriker) to make a toy that is painted in the colours (and colour mapping) of a character that Hasbro owns and paid for the development of. The one tie that this toy has to Harmony Gold's property is that it shares a name and colours with a toy/character that was released 25+ years ago using a pressing of a mould that Harmony Gold does not dispute that Hasbro had a right to use at the time.
In PR terms....what is Harmony Gold trying to prove? Do they seriously think that a recall is practical? Do they think that a recall (never mind stopping sales of TF/Joe sets that have not yet been sold) is going to earn them any goodwill? Anybody who still cares about "Robotech" likely has copies (legal and otherwise) of the episodes. HG is a joke, and this will not help them. (After this, I would buy bootlegged "Robotech" on principle if I were going to buy it at all.)
They have distribution rights that would arguably qualify as squatting (acquiring the rights to IP and then doing nothing but "defend" them from infringement). This could cost them those rights or obligate them to use those rights. And, there is no way that HG has more money than Hasbro.
The basis of their complaint is.....that Hasbro used tooling that they own (the Skystriker) to make a toy that is painted in the colours (and colour mapping) of a character that Hasbro owns and paid for the development of. The one tie that this toy has to Harmony Gold's property is that it shares a name and colours with a toy/character that was released 25+ years ago using a pressing of a mould that Harmony Gold does not dispute that Hasbro had a right to use at the time.
In PR terms....what is Harmony Gold trying to prove? Do they seriously think that a recall is practical? Do they think that a recall (never mind stopping sales of TF/Joe sets that have not yet been sold) is going to earn them any goodwill? Anybody who still cares about "Robotech" likely has copies (legal and otherwise) of the episodes. HG is a joke, and this will not help them. (After this, I would buy bootlegged "Robotech" on principle if I were going to buy it at all.)