IpleHouse has announced that they now have their dolls legally copyrighted in the United States. The company has been battling illegal doll recasters that sell on auction sites and online shops.
From the company:
Hello, this is Iplehouse.
We would like to announce you about illegal recast doll companies.
We are composed of small group of artists.
To make products what customers want, and develop products,
we are always doing our best to listen carefully about your opinion,
and all our items are made by our passion, and efforts.
Recently, there were many illegal sales on Taobao,Ebay,and Auction.
As BJD markets are very limited field, the side effect of illegal recast doll sales really hits original doll companies.
Since customers know what is going on now,
they are reporting many illegal sites to us, and that is really helpful.
Thanks to those help, we finally got our copy right, and we have right to protect our dolls.
We are not going to allow any illegal acts, and are going to be really strict about this.
We are not only planning to sue people who help those illegal companies, and illegal recasters,
but also block any illegal sales on Taobao, Ebay, and Auction.
We are already collecting some proofs from KOTRA(Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency),
and preparing reports for FBI based on those proofs.
We are going to fight with those illegal companies,
and not going to allow them to sell illegal products.
We really thank you for supporting us.
We are always going to try hard to become better Iplehouse.
Too bad artists do not have the same legal right to protect their own works from being copied in Asian countries like Korea, China etc. All the illegal recasting of American and European and Australian and Russian original work, is done in Asian countries and none of these artists can do anything about their work being stolen, because the laws Iplehouse is referring to using here, do not exist in Asian countries, hence the vast majority of recasting, if not ALL of it, is done in Asian countries, where they do not believe in copyrights of any kind (except when they exercise these same rights for themselves overseas, courtesy of American laws, of course). The copyright protection does not protect American companies or artists from being copied by companies like Iplehouse and Lutz and so on, though. It’s the kind of double standard you would expect when you sell out your homeland for cheap overseas slave labor to make a quick buck.