Cube order stuck in U.S. customs

[EvilGnome6]

I received a call from UPS informing me that my order from China was stuck in customs and they are requesting a letter of authorization of importation. They said it was related to the Rubik's Cube patent holder and required either a release from the patent holder or a statement that the patent isn't applicable.

Has anyone had to deal with that? I have ordered many times from that shop and never had a problem.

 

[mark49152]

They said it was related to the Rubik's Cube patent holder and required either a release from the patent holder or a statement that the patent isn't applicable.

Did they specify which patent?

 

[stoic]

There was a recent update about the Seven Towns situation which I posted here:
Seven Towns Infringement on eBay - All of EU
which may or may not help.

 

[Tony Fisher]

Assuming your order was regular Rubik's Cubes- You should tell them that the patent expired in 2000 and is no longer applicable- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik's_Cube#Patent_history and https://www.google.com/patents/US4378116 . In Europe cubes are seized because of a ridiculous ruling by the General Court of the European Union on 25 November 2014 which prohibits copying the 2x2x2, 3x3x3, 4x4x4 & 5x5x5 outer appearance. Seizure because of patent infringement however is nonsense and should be challenged. I assume they have simply given the wrong reason but that mistake might well get the order released.
If you have ordered other puzzles then the situation may be different.

 

[EvilGnome6]

Assuming your order was regular Rubik's Cubes- You should tell them that the patent expired in 2000 and is no longer applicable- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik's_Cube#Patent_history and https://www.google.com/patents/US4378116 . In Europe cubes are seized because of a ridiculous ruling by the General Court of the European Union on 25 November 2014 which prohibits copying the 2x2x2, 3x3x3, 4x4x4 & 5x5x5 outer appearance. Seizure because of patent infringement however is nonsense and should be challenged. I assume they have simply given the wrong reason but that mistake might well get the order released.
If you have ordered other puzzles then the situation may be different.

Thank you. I will pass that information to them and report back with my results. I appreciate the quick response from the community!

 

[rastoma]

I have ordered many times from that shop and never had a problem.

What company?

 

[EvilGnome6]

My reply to UPS:

I am still working with the sender on this issue and trying to determine why customs is holding this package. To my knowledge, none of the logic puzzles in this shipment feature any Rubik’s Cube trademarked branding, logos or packaging. Additionally, the patents on the mechanism for these types of puzzles expired in 2000:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik's_Cube#Patent_history

https://www.google.com/patents/US4378116

Is there any further information you can provide to help me identify why this package is being held and what specific claims are being made to hold it?

Their response:

Please see attached document.

201606141040.pdf

 

[AlexMaass]

this is ridiculous, have you tried telling the shop about this? maybe you could possibly get a refund

I guess you could ask Rubik's brand to be nice and allow the package to go through, but I doubt they'd do that

 

[AlexMaass]

Also what store did you order from and what did you order?

 

[Tony Fisher]

Yes, this is what I thought. The patent statement was wrong and they are stopping it because of the infringement of intellectual rights based on the outer appearance, not the mechanism or name (see here- https://uk.rubiks.com/info/image-rights ). However stupid it seems they are perfectly entitled to do this and many puzzles have been seized because of it. My only advice is that people should order their cubes from companies like HKNowstore which sends them in DIY form. Although they could still be seized it's much less likely that customs officials will recognise what they are looking at.
The majority of the time puzzles will get through especially if parcels are small. It's only when they randomly pick a parcel or target it because of size or value etc.
Things might get better in the future since there was a successful appeal against the rule recently- http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2016-05/cp160052en.pdf . It is not legally binding but may lead to a change I guess.

 

[AlexMaass]

Yes, this is what I thought. The patent statement was wrong and they are stopping it because of the infringement of intellectual rights based on the outer appearance, not the mechanism or name (see here- https://uk.rubiks.com/info/image-rights ). However stupid it seems they are perfectly entitled to do this and many puzzles have been seized because of it. My only advice is that people should order their cubes from companies like HKNowstore which sends them in DIY form. Although they could still be seized it's much less likely that customs officials will recognise what they are looking at.
The majority of the time puzzles will get through especially if parcels are small. It's only when they randomly pick a parcel or target it because of size or value etc.
Things might get better in the future since there was a successful appeal against the rule recently- http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2016-05/cp160052en.pdf . It is not legally binding but may lead to a change I guess.

so someone could just copyright the outside appearance of an invention/patent and use that to protect their patent even after the patent expires?

 

[mafergut]

Nonsense!!! I'm sick and tired of companies trying to keep their income while not investing a cent in R&D, just by enforcing their intellectual property rights. If all the chinese companies were just ripping off Rubik's designs and selling them cheaper I would be 100% with Rubik. But, c'mon, can you just stop trying to put hurdles to other companies R&D efforts by claiming some ridiculous patent infringements and... I don't know, how about investing some money of your own in trying to design a puzzle that actually is good and enjoyable to turn instead of the crap you keep making since I don't know how many years ago?

Can you also return something to the speedcubing community? If you were to win this battle and destroy all instances of Moyu, Qiyi, Dayan etc. cubes the WCA would have to close doors as there would be no puzzles to be bought that can actually be speedsolved. That thing you call Rubik's speedcube is just a ton of cr@p. So who's the bad guy / company here?

Sounds like when the family of a writer or composer wants to extend intellectual property duration to keep living off the royalties and doing nothing of value.

 

[Tony Fisher]

so someone could just copyright the outside appearance of an invention/patent and use that to protect their patent even after the patent expires?

As I understand it-
You have automatic rights over your own creations so you do not have to copyright anything and you can not claim rights over anything which isn't yours. I think it was intended to protect things like paintings that can't really be patented. It's actually a good thing though it can be abused. Obviously the item / art work needs to be unique and original so you can't just draw a circle and claim the rights to all circles. Rubik seems to have claimed the rights to a 3x3x3 grid (stickered or unstickered) which I find ridiculous since it is hardly unique or original. I also object to it because they seemed to allow many years of production by other companies before suddenly wanting it to stop. Since the situation was far from obvious to those companies they are hardly at fault.
The recent successful (though not legally binding) appeal won because they deemed the outer appearance allowable if it is a necessity of function. Meaning that the current 3x3x3s made by other companies are not made with the intention of copying Rubik's outer appearance but with the intention of making a functioning 3x3x3 puzzle that no longer has a patent protected mechanism. The outer appearance is simply a natural result of making such a puzzle.

 

[EvilGnome6]

Well, after a month they finally appeared on my doorstep. Go figure.

 

[mafergut]

Nice! So long since you last showed up on the Older cuber discussions thread. Busy? I found your big cube solve videos motivating.

 

[EvilGnome6]

Nice! So long since you last showed up on the Older cuber discussions thread. Busy? I found your big cube solve videos motivating.

Yeah, I've been preoccupied with other stuff lately but I do have a competition next weekend so I'll have a 7x7 solve to post.

 

[aybuck37]

Wow that is very unusual! Try ordering from a shop called cubetopia! They have beat stuff