Seven Towns vs. Dayan - Color Scheme Copyright Infringment

Status
Not open for further replies.
In my experience, torpedoes just seem to make it so that when it does pop, it really pops.

Well, when torpedoes are in my ZhanChi, I can barely take a piece out. I have to take a screwdriver to the thing just to pop out one edge. Mine is impossible to pop. I think if Rubik's (because they use rivets instead of screws) didn't rivet in the centers so tightly, and altered their piece design to support torpedoes, they could actually make a decent cube. Not exactly a speed cube, but just a cube for the transition from store-bought to speed cube. They could market it as the Rubik's Speed, perhaps.
 
Well, when torpedoes are in my ZhanChi, I can barely take a piece out. I have to take a screwdriver to the thing just to pop out one edge. Mine is impossible to pop. I think if Rubik's (because they use rivets instead of screws) didn't rivet in the centers so tightly, and altered their piece design to support torpedoes, they could actually make a decent cube. Not exactly a speed cube, but just a cube for the transition from store-bought to speed cube. They could market it as the Rubik's Speed, perhaps.

Same here. Both my ZhanChi and my LingYun v2 have NEVER popped. Even though I keep the tensions pretty loose.
 
The cube is easily disassembled without a screwdriver, twist the edge before you take it out/put it in.

And the cube is poppable, on my last comp it popped several times for some people who tried it, although it never pops for me. I'm not that rough of a turner I guess, we were averaging about the same times, and my Zhanchi is at pretty loose tensions, which explains some popping. (It probably helps me with the taking out/inserting an edge thing when I think about it.)
The anchors just act as some comfort to make me turn rougher or something, and also suits non-cubers who want to play with it, no disassembly for them. :D
As well as the rough cubers I have around me can actually use it without it popping like crazy, had one who had a popfest with my Guhong, while it never pops for me, his cubing style was made pretty clear.

Like uberCuber said, when it pops you'll know, the piece won't simply pop out, it'll go flying... Assuming it doesn't explode that is.

EDIT: And for a try to get back to topic, I don't think it will be that much of a concern for me, I adapt rather quick to new color schemes(Completely weird setups (Blue-orange, green-yellow and red-white as an example, my old color scheme I used some time ago), as well as other colors, Eastsheen's purple(?) didn't make a difference for me), and I also have a crapload of sticker sets just in case, the pro of buying DIY's all the time.
 
Last edited:
Torpedoes.It's nearly impossible to even remove a piece with torpedoes in it.

Nah. It's harder to pop a piece on a storebought IMO. Recorded this short vid for you. Sorry mods, off topic I know :( Please spare me ;)


If I were to try that on a new unlubed store bought I would break a nail or two.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nah. It's harder to pop a piece on a storebought IMO. Recorded this short vid for you. Sorry mods, off topic I know :( Please spare me ;)

If I were to try that on a new unlubed store bought I would break a nail or two.

Wow. But it looks like you have your tensions set much looser than mine. I can't get the piece out even with the sideways maneuver.
 
qqwref and David gave a reasonable explanation for the action that Seven Towns took. Yes its totally stupid, but it was required of Seven Towns in order to keep their trademark. Thus, they don't really care what the outcome is, but rather they care about keeping a firm hold on being the originals.

This isn't about stickers, this is about their trademark.

Also, people replace stickers anyway. Support Cubesmith and izo, buy stickers.
 
Whether you solve it for speed or not, having to do wrist turns all the time would get quite annoying. So would constant lock-ups. I wouldn't want a Zhanchi replica, but a cube that would be suitable for speedcubing, and if people want to make it better still, they just lube it and mod it.

i agree.
but they focus on being "just a puzzle toy" for everybody (speedcuber or not) with a good quality.
hey, it is not my fault. :D
 
Oh and I forgot to add, its obvious that it wasn't that big a deal because they changed the color of orange. If they would've asked to change white, I think there would be quite the uproar.
 
Oh and I forgot to add, its obvious that it wasn't that big a deal because they changed the color of orange. If they would've asked to change white, I think there would be quite the uproar.

No. They weren't asked to change a specific colour, e.g. orange, but to change the colour scheme and the orientation of the colours relative to each other. Dayan decided to comply with the complaint by changing orange to purple.
 
No. They weren't asked to change a specific colour, e.g. orange, but to change the colour scheme and the orientation of the colours relative to each other. Dayan decided to comply with the complaint by changing orange to purple.

Can you trademark colours? Really. It's like a website asking another website to change it's design because they look simular. Because they invented the concept, they think they are the forefront of speedsolving, when actually, they are at the back. Also, the first link (on the first post) made Dayan's sound like inferior cubes, although they clearly haven't compared them. Rubik make rubbish cubes. End of. They just want to get their own back on better cube companies.
 
No, you can't trademark or copyright individual colours, but you can trademark combinations or configurations of colours. Same as you can't trademark or copyright individual words, but you can trademark or copyright combinations and configurations of words made into a song, story, poem etc.
 
Sorry hcfong, I wrote that down wrong, I know that didn't ask Dayan to change specifically Orange, they asked them to change the whole scheme. What I meant was Dayan made a good choice in picking orange because it is a color that isn't used by many people who aren't CN. Now if they had changed white to purple, I'm sure there would be a problem.

Dayan softened the blow and made it not that big of deal by switching Orange specifically.

Sorry. I wrote that wrong.
 
What I meant was Dayan made a good choice in picking orange because it is a color that isn't used by many people who aren't CN.
I think they chose it because orange and purple are more similar than, say, orange and white. Red-purple might have been a better choice in my opinion, but that's just me.
 
Yellow-Orange is a popular BLD orientation (or so I heard) :(

Switching a colour in a BLD orientation isn't too hard, really. It just takes a couple solves to get used to. I could sub-10 memo pretty easily if you swapped my white with black.
 
OLOLOLOLOLOL. Summary to the best of my understanding.

1) Rubik's may not necessarily want to but they have too. People seem to be missing this point. (Nubs will argue, but what if they want to. ANSWER - they still have to)

2) Rubik's doesn't make inferior cubes. They make cubes that aren't made for speedsolving. Based on the original which sells a lot, so it isn't broken, why fix it? (Nubs will argue but it is broken. Go to point 3)

3) Speedcubers isn't the majority in the market. We appeal to them (hence DIY kits and the sort), maybe, but they don't necessarily have us in mind when it comes to sale. So stop saying Rubik's is oppressing everyone because (back to point 1)

4) Also it's Dayan, and they don't make the best of stickers. You'll literally replace them in less than 3 months (nubs will argue that I haven't changed my stickers yet. The fact that they will make this argument makes them nub so don't even bother)

5) Eastsheen (which used to be the best) had purple stickers on it. The older generation used them with no complaints and if they did complain about they did not bitch about it but instead, just bought a new set of stickers. (No money, get a job. Too young, do some nice things for your parents and ask them, repeat if necessary.)
 
Thanks Patrick for reopening this thread. People, please keep it civil.

So... new news, and some observations.

I placed an order for cubes earlier today... I received an email back about my new order of Dayan cubes, and found out that the supplier I get my cubes from had a customer of his get a large order of +500 cubes get taken at customs.

I can order cubes, but either as DIY or I have to take the risk of them getting seized. Even as DIY kits there is a risk of not getting my cubes in.

It looks like many cube stores in china are taking action to protect themselves. Many have taken assembled 3x3x3's off their sites. Some have removed only the black cubes, while others will sell assembled cubes, only not stickered. One store took every type of assembled 3x3 off of their site to protect their business.

This is not about starting a flame war against Seven Towns, Verdes, Dayan etc. It's about what's happening to our community.

Our beloved Dayan cubes are being considered to be knock-off / counterfeit products, and if the big companies go against them, (Rubik's / Seven Towns for example) this may in fact stick.

So, If cubing stores can no longer safely purchase cubes in bulk... what happens to these stores, our competitions, and the community.

If Dayan, or any other manufacturer for that matter can no longer get their products outside their country, what happens to the rest of us? Why would they bother making cubes, if there's a risk their company might not be able to sell them?
I'm not sure how to go about approaching this... but what happens when say, every US based store can no longer sell 3x3 cubes other than the Rubik's brand?

We've seen some hits in regards to our cubing world... but it looks like we've now hit up against the multi-billion dollar Seven Towns company. What can we possibly do to keep the real R&D on cubes happening, and companies like Dayan producing real speed cubes?

Also, if you own a cube store here in the US, I'd like to hear your stance on what you plan to do to keep your company alive and cubes available.

- Pixel -

Further reading on customs and Rubik's:

http://rulings.cbp.gov/detail.asp?ru=477375&ac=pr
http://www.rubiks.com/i/company/media_library/pdf/Web_142_RELEASE_Fakesroundup.pdf
http://rulings.cbp.gov/detail.asp?ru=h027746&ac=pr
 
Last edited:
I don't see why they care this much. Although they lose some business from speed cube companies, it is not something that will come within the tiniest fraction of putting them out of business due to the moron sticker peeler who buy the cubes for sometimes $20 at ripoff stores.
 
I don't really know how this is going to pan out, but at the moment, it looks bad. I really hope that people are overreacting and that this will fix itself soon, and assembled speedcubes will be able to be freely sold again (and yes, that IS a potshot at SevenTowns). Although I don't think they care about the speedcubing community at all, I would really like to see a SevenTowns representative's take on this, and to know whether they are trying to get rid of every "knockoff" cube or just trying to protect their trademark.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top