Transformers counterfeiters successfully convicted and sentenced to imprisonment

[GoktimusPrime]

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

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

So, does anyone know the actual details here?

[reillyd]

Not a clue. I've learned not to trust company press releases.... for all we know it could have been just a few ebay sellers....... or the douches who used stolen G1 molds to do KO.

[DELTAprime]

After all this time they finally do something to protect their IP. (slow clap)

[griffin]

After all this time they finally do something to protect their IP. (slow clap)

And if it is Gen1 KOs, it's IP that used (stole) other people's IP for their unlicensed vehicle modes.


Without more details, we don't know if it is current product (which affects Hasbro sales), or vintage product (which doesn't).

This is probably related to the big push that Hasbro has been doing into China in the last two years... giving it a better case of lost revenue in China now that they are actually selling a significant amount of legit stock there. Before, if Hasbro weren't selling much in mainland China, the Chinese justice system wouldn't have bothered prosecuting the toy pirates, as they would have been selling product that wasn't available there anyway. And if a foreign entity ends up sending too many Chinese citizens to jail, that entity (company) might find themselves blacklisted among the manufacturers, and have to withdraw future prosecutions in order to keep having their own products being made in China.
(GuangDong is an area that has factories that Hasbro uses (or did in the past), so if they go after everyone making KOs, they might end up being locked out of China with a big disruption of production as moulds are sent to other places like Vietnam, to keep up supply)

[bowspearer]

Not a clue. I've learned not to trust company press releases.... for all we know it could have been just a few ebay sellers....... or the douches who used stolen G1 molds to do KO.

Judging by this, I's say the later:

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.