Money
Hello. My name is Taras, I am a private entrepreneur from Lviv, Ukraine. Today I have a sad story. But everything is in order.
Our store in the center of the city sells home textiles. It would seem – what does the story about home textiles on Gictimes? And here’s what: we are faced, it seems to us, with a new kind of “patent trolls.”
The saga of the patent attorney
A week ago in our store was bought baby bedding with a picture from the m / f “Masha and the Bear”. In appearance, a respectable man of about 50 years told us that his granddaughter is very fond of this cartoon and he would like to buy her this bed as a present. Since this product is already well “stagnant,” we were glad that we had slugged the “illiquid”. money. As it turned out later, we began to rejoice too early.
A week after that purchase, a “letter of happiness” came to us. Masha’s buyer was a patent attorney who is a representative of a Cypriot company that owns the copyright to Masha and the Bear. In his letter he gave us a scan of our check with a seal (issued on his demand), a photo of bed linen made by a hidden camera in our store before buying, and a whole bunch of more. In the letter, the patent attorney pointed out that when buying the goods, the secret video recording of the fact of purchase was made that we violated the copyrights of the company grossly, that the goods we sell are counterfeit, the right to distribute to us was not given and in general we are rascals . Also in the letter (as an example), a decision was made by the Kiev court of a year ago regarding the collection of compensation from one LLC (retailer) for copyright infringement when selling goods with the logo “Masha and the Bear” (although not bed-clothes) in the amount of almost UAH 100,000 ($ 3,710). And at the end of the letter – the offer tearfully repent of the deed amicably resolve the issue before the court for compensation of the damage, which we viciously inflicted on the right holder.
Prehistory
As we are a small retail store, we do not carry out foreign economic activities, we buy all the goods in counterparties within the country. Almost a year ago, we decided to slightly expand the range of children’s products, and in one of our counterparty, we ordered several units of children’s bed linen . Among them – in one copy was ordered and ill-fated bed linen “Masha and the Bear” of Chinese production.
That is, once again – the goods we had been formally bought into a counterparty, we received the documents. The manufacturer of the goods is a Chinese company whose products we sell not for the first year, the goods are always of excellent quality and there have been no problems until today with their goods.
As for Masha and Medved, as already mentioned, specifically At us they “have not gone”, this 1 piece. The goods stood proudly on our shelves for several months. As is usually done in retail, if the product stagnates, a small discount is first set for it, then more, then another, and finally – the price is already below cost to simply “shove” it off balance and return at least some of the money spent. So it happened here.
And finally a buyer came to us a week ago, who bought our “Masha” for 995 UAH (about $ 40). What happened then, you already know.
So who is guilty?
Many now will reflect – well and what, actually such happened? It’s not just that they find fault, the copyrights were, most likely, violated! Hence, the rightholder company has the right to protect its copyright, even if through third parties. So? Then listen – I totally agree with you! But here’s the question: why for copyright infringement responsibility should be borne by the retailer, and not, for example, the manufacturer? Or a wholesaler? When Apple proved in court a violation of its rights, compensation for damages was paid by Samsung, and not by electronics stores.
And another point: if the patent attorney really wanted to protect the rights of the right holder, why did he not ask us to remove the goods? Provide documents for the goods? In the end, to demand that this product be confiscated from us! Instead, the patent attorney bought for himself (for his own opinion – counterfeit) the goods for his money thereby, in fact, financially supported those who, in his opinion, violate the rights of the right holder.
] Where is the logic here?
And the logic is normal – business, baby. The point is that in the aforementioned court decision, which the patent attorney intimidates us, the amount of compensation was calculated not on the basis of the money, but on the basis of the fact of copyright infringement . That is, if you sell matches with Masha images for 10 kopeks, you risk for each such fact of selling the goods in full. I am not strong in jurisprudence, but, as far as I’m aware, the maximum amount of money claims against us can be from 32 000 UAH. ($ 1190) to 320 000 UAH. ($ 11,900). So you understand, this amount is now – this is the end of our business (we are already barely afloat now). I’m even afraid to imagine that our business, which we have been building for so many years, can be destroyed because of the 40-dollar bed linen with the picture “Masha and the Bear.”
What’s next?
If this text is read by retailers, my advice is – do not sell products with characters from famous cartoons and movies. Even if your contractor assures you that the manufacturer has all the rights to manufacture. After all, someone in this chain can lie (both manufacturer and wholesalers), money and you will go to court. And unlike medium and large enterprises, you do not have a staff of lawyers and you can hardly afford high-quality legal protection in court, which increases the chances of your losing.
As for us, we look at the situation as follows. We did not produce goods and did not deliver them to the country. We have a waybill to buy this product from our contractors. We did not ignore anyone and would help if we got a claim from the rightholder. So we will not offer any compensation to the patent attorney. All that remains for us is to wait for the summons in court. The fact that it will be, we do not even doubt – it is necessary for the patent attorney to repay the spent $ 40 for the purchase of goods and still earn.
