Radu
Premium Member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2007
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- Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Hi all,
We have a small online shop in Romania (EU) (www.genios.ro if it matters) which is selling the regular cubes locally, like in ever other cube store (MoYu, Gan, QiYi, etc). We ran it without problems for 10 years already since I started it, so we know the business pretty well.
Now, my friend who is running the store, suddenly got some cubes orders blocked by customs (+a fine of 700eur) pretending they are counterfeit. It seems the claim is coming from "Rubik's Brand LTD". I was very surprised by this and i don't know how to solve this for now. We made an appeal at the customs, but the process will be quite long and slow.
It seems the representatives of "Rubik's Brand LTD" in Romania pretend we have broken some EU Trade Marks. More specific :
I found these on EUIPO, but I don't see how we broke any of these trademarks. Did something change recently in the legislation and we are not aware of? How can they block an import of GAN cubes, which is Rubik's partner? It's like banning their own products. Even rubik.hu is selling GAN and Giiker cubes on their website!
Is this still the way Rubik's/SevenTowns are used to do business? killing small competitors instead of improving their own products? I thought those times have gone a few years ago.
Any help and feedback from you is welcome! Thanks,
Radu
We have a small online shop in Romania (EU) (www.genios.ro if it matters) which is selling the regular cubes locally, like in ever other cube store (MoYu, Gan, QiYi, etc). We ran it without problems for 10 years already since I started it, so we know the business pretty well.
Now, my friend who is running the store, suddenly got some cubes orders blocked by customs (+a fine of 700eur) pretending they are counterfeit. It seems the claim is coming from "Rubik's Brand LTD". I was very surprised by this and i don't know how to solve this for now. We made an appeal at the customs, but the process will be quite long and slow.
It seems the representatives of "Rubik's Brand LTD" in Romania pretend we have broken some EU Trade Marks. More specific :
- EUTM 000323329
- EUTM 015292287
- EUTM 015518971
I found these on EUIPO, but I don't see how we broke any of these trademarks. Did something change recently in the legislation and we are not aware of? How can they block an import of GAN cubes, which is Rubik's partner? It's like banning their own products. Even rubik.hu is selling GAN and Giiker cubes on their website!
Is this still the way Rubik's/SevenTowns are used to do business? killing small competitors instead of improving their own products? I thought those times have gone a few years ago.
Any help and feedback from you is welcome! Thanks,
Radu
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