Seven Towns vs. Dayan - Color Scheme Copyright Infringment

[ExoVampire]

I think the issue here is that Seven Towns has found themself mad on DaYan, because DaYan is more popular. That is just my point of view.
Most of the speedcubers today are using DaYan. It isn't something we can change, or do things about. Speedcubing would be so less if DaYan, Alpha, etc. would be "shutdown".
I can't find any other solution than a protest against these claims. If it eventually comes to the point, where speedcubes only can be sold in the US, the speedcubing community will die slowly.

Don't hang me up on this though.

 

[Pete the Geek]

Customs seizures can be appealed and it would benefit all US-based cube sellers to cooperate and join forces to fight such seizures, but I understand that the costs could make it uneconomical. If it is a copyright issue, we are going to have new cube colours, perhaps checkered and polka-dot patterns and even different sticker shapes. In some alternate universe, the WCA will pass a rule requiring 3x3 competition cubes to have purple as one of the colours .

 

[Bapao]

A competition where only Rubiks brand 3x3x3 fresh out of the box are allowed would be interesting though. The problem is that some Rubiks brand cubes turn okay, whilst others are just tensioned incorrectly. So the whole thing would still be luck of the draw.

I still believe that there is enough room for DaYan and co. DaYan isn't a retail brand and potential buyers either stumble upon their cubes by accident, or they actively search for them because they are more fit for speed solving. I doubt many casual cubers that aren't interested in speed solving purchase a Chinese cube as their first. They'd probably buy a Rubiks brand because that's "the real deal".

We might be overreacting. I think it's a pretty big ode to DaYan that the new V-Cube resembles their offerings. Goes to show that DaYan have got the 3x3x3 formula right and that others are interested in borrowing their ideas as a result.

 

[andyfreeman]

So the whole thing would still be luck of the draw.

In which case you might as well give the competitors a raffle ticket instead and decide that way

 

[Bapao]

In which case you might as well give the competitors a raffle ticket instead and decide that way

Exactly. Or just use one cube for the whole comp and then the last few solvers get a moderalty worn in cube to work with .

A small community being posed with issues that are seemingly out of our hands. Only time can tell where this dispute will take us. Do we really have any leverage in this? I'm not sure.

 

[BlueDevil]

What I find funny is that they go after all these 'fake cubes' yet they still post some of Feliks' solves on their website (in which he uses a 'fake' Dayan cube).

This just makes me hate Rubik's more than ever before. If they don't want people buying 'fake' cubes instead of theirs, they should come out with their own, awesome speedcube!

 

[Kirjava]

Imagine you could only attend the event with a Rubik's cube!!!

this is never ever ever going to happen ever

 

[DaKrazedKyubizt]

Frankly, all I can think to say is that Dayan is a company that has served the speedcubers' needs. They can't just cut that off. If they cut that off, they get a ton of pissed speedcubers and a completely ruined activity. That's almost like saying you can't play table tennis without good table tennis rubber anymore, and everybody has to use the exact same crappy paddles. That's no fun. It takes all the incredible amount of brain power necessary for high level table tennis and defenestrates it. Then table tennis just becomes that boring past time that people play when they're drunk, and it loses everything that makes table tennis what it is today.

Not to say that if copyright infringement crap like this goes through, all Dayan cubes will suddenly disappear into thin air, but you guys catch my drift, right?

.... I'm sure most of you can't take me seriously because I'm using table tennis to make a comparison, which to most people is a poor excuse for a sport, but that's okay. I'm quite alright with that.

 

[Vincents]

this is never ever ever going to happen ever

Was 82 Worlds held this way?

 

[Reinier Schippers]

Was 82 Worlds held this way?

The only brand was rubik's at that time, maybe a few cheap knock off's but everyone used a rubik's

 

[Kirjava]

Was 82 Worlds held this way?

going to != has

 

[shelley]

In some alternate universe, the WCA will pass a rule requiring 3x3 competition cubes to have purple as one of the colours .

Well that's just silly. Why would they ever do that, even in an alternate universe?

 

[HelpCube]

I'd love to see this go to court. Seriously, legal action needs to take place to really sort this junk out.

 

[radmin]

The one pdf stated that eastsheen didn't infringe because of the purple side. They can just ship with no stickers.

 

[Yuxuibbs]

I think we should annoy 7 towns until they stop and tell dayan to go back to orange or just don't put stickers on their cubes. Every time someone sees a 3x3 they will think it's a rubik's brand, most people don't even know about the other brands of 3x3s. Non cubers will see a 3x3 and be like "that's a rubik's cube", they won't say, "that's a dayan (or any other cube brand)". There's no point attacking dayan because it's only going to hurt 7 towns. I also think dayan should just switch 2 opposite colors on their stickerless cubes so we just have to take the pieces apart and put them back together in the regular color scheme.
If seven towns wanted to go after companies because of color scheme, why didn't they do that years ago when the first DIYs came out? Why aren't they going after V cubes (do they care what type of blue)?
Dayan is just getting targeted because it's taking over the 3x3 world (for speed cubers).
If something like pokemon just got popular and it took over the gaming community, all the other companies that sell games will start suing the people that sell pokemon games just because their product is better/more fun. (couldn't really think of a good example)

I think I rambled too much....

 

[Bob]

this is never ever ever going to happen ever

If it ever did happen, you could expect that the Bob Burton Cube Association would be created and non-Rubik's brands would be allowed.

 

[qqwref]

Some people forget about how SevenTowns actually does support the community.

Sure, by helping pay for a few competitions. But remember, they are profiting *heavily* off of our existence - the revitalization of the speedcubing movement, the worldwide competitions, the community, the Youtube videos, the TV exposure, they have all made the cube a far hotter item than it was a decade ago. They also explicitly use speedcubing records, techniques, and imagery to drum up sales. Putting a few grand into big comps is really the least they could do.

As for people who get annoyed that Rubik's brands are always terrible, they should consider that 'terrible' is a subjective word. 99% of their market is the general public, who put short and long-term durability as a priority. So that's what Rubik's base their cubes around.

I wouldn't say official Rubik's Cubes are especially durable either. The stickers start to peel very quickly and end up entirely losing their coloring, and from what I've heard the cores of official Rubik's Cubes seem to be more prone to breaking than DIY cores. Compare that to my Lubix Guhong which I bought quite a while ago, and have used pretty heavily since, and which came with good enough stickers that the logo is pretty much undamaged. (Needless to say I haven't had any core/piece breaks either, despite dropping it many times and often having it in my backpack.) When I think of especially durable cubes, the only ones that come to mind are the large V-Cubes.

 

[daniel0731ex]

V-cube 3 = Greek knockoff copies of the original Rubik's cube.

They should be illegal.

[/sarcasm]

 

[masterofthebass]

V-cube 3 = Greek knockoff copies of the original Rubik's cube.

They should be illegal.

The patent offices of multiple countries seem to disagree with you.

 

[musicninja17]

.... I'm sure most of you can't take me seriously because I'm using table tennis to make a comparison, which to most people is a poor excuse for a sport, but that's okay. I'm quite alright with that.

Actually i'd say more people consider table tennis a sport than cubing. And it is a good analogy btw.