Dept. of Homeland Security Enforces Expired Patent 1006
Fouquet writes "Apparently the Department of Homeland Security does not have enough to do in keeping the US safe, and now is enforcing copyright law as well. The AP reports that a toy store owner in Oregon was requested by Homeland Security officials to remove a potentially copyright-infringing Rubik's cube-like toy from her shelves. The patent for Rubik's cube was issued in 1980, and so it is expired."
Fear of powers (Score:5, Interesting)
However with all the terrorism and patriotism nowdays, peasants can't afford to not cooperate, "just in case" you got blamed for being terrorist or unpatriotic.
Next thing we know, IRS burst into a kindergarten arresting several 5-year-old's for not calculating and paying proper tax while playing Monopoly, just to protect the integrity of the economy and nation's financial systems. "If they can't do tax at age of 5, will you trust them to pay tax 20 years later?!"
Just Wow. (Score:3, Interesting)
This sounds like really great news. What next? Every person who downloads MP3s is automatically branded a 'terrorist' because they might be threatening the integrity of the economy? Even if they own the CD in question (which is analogous here, because legally there's nothing wrong with the Majick Cube either now that the Rubik's patent has expired)?
--Ryvar
Re:rUSsiA (Score:5, Interesting)
Check this [livejournal.com] out.
Excerpt:
Nothing to see here (Score:5, Interesting)
The Customs Service is now part of Homeland Security. Ergo, DHS agents were the ones who investigated this incident.
I want one (Score:5, Interesting)
So how about it ThinkGeek? I want "the toy the government doesn't want you to know about".
How cool would that be.
POE (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:rUSsiA (Score:5, Interesting)
Zandecks [easyjournal.com]
**Snip--From the end of the Blog**
After about half an hour of searching they let me go and everything was ok. The customs girl who searched me was really nice and I've got nothing against her, but now there is a file on me that they found traces of cocain in my bag. I thought about how the hell this could happen, and when I got home I realised that the lock on my bag was missing (I had noticed earlier but forgot when I was being searched). I opened up my bag again and found a note from US customs. Apparently they had broken open my bag to search it. I guess ing these fuckers searched my bag and accidently contaminated my bag with some cocain they found on an ealier search. Thanks guys...
**Snap**
Submitter and gov't has no clue about trademarks (Score:3, Interesting)
OK, so US Customs is enforcing a trademark violation. Fine.
What is wrong is that Customs does not have jurisdiction inside the US only coming and going from it. Once in the US, it is a civil case that would need at least a hearing or court order to remove merchandise from the store. More than likely, an authorized local authority would then execute the court order(not actual agents).
It is disturbing that Homeland Security did think that Magic Cube and Rubik's Cube are similar in name or that they don't understand what a trademark is. Most disturbing is that Homeland Security obviously does not understand the laws they are trying to enforce or how to legally enforce them.
The only 'wrong' thing going on is that Rubik or whoever reported it is intentionally damaging and interfering with Magic Cubes and Pufferbelly Toys businesses. Homeland Security should immediately return the items to Pufferbelly Toys and apologize. I don't think there is much Pufferbelly Toys can do for restitution directly against Homeland Security. It would be nice to be able to sue the government for incompetence, but then there would be no government left.
Re:DHS seems to have morphed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:rUSsiA (Score:1, Interesting)
That is so over the top and sarcastic, not to mention a "prayer" rather than some planned action, that I have a hard time believing anyone is so dense they don't understand it as a joke.
I guess there are some highly stupid people out there with limited senses of humour.
It's definitely not borderline nutty. It can't be construed as a threat against the president... unless you have reason to believe she had access to a mountain of cocaine and a black male prostitute
Re:And why are you people voting for Bush? (Score:2, Interesting)
That completely aside from the fact that you're a moron and you seem have no idea what the Department of Homeland Security is or what it does.
The DHS does a lot more than fight terrorism.
Re:rUSsiA (Score:1, Interesting)
When Clinton was president, a group of young republicans had a turkey shooting competition. Guess what image they used for the target? Needless to say they got a visit and the competition was cancelled.
-AC
more on corruption (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It's a case of priorities (Score:5, Interesting)
Exactly. What you need to do is to stop terrorists at their source, and not terrorize your own people by hurting their privacy rights.
Tough statement, I know, but really just a logical conclusion from your argument...
Besides that (and back more on-topic, sorry), I think in this case the nomenclature is just unfortunate with the customs department being part of the DHS. On the other hand, look what this did to the shop owner... scare tactics at work.
Re:And why are you people voting for Bush? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Fear of powers (Score:3, Interesting)
There is speculation that Customs and Immigration will be soon split into two separate entities again. This is a good thing because it means those agents will have more training for their area of expertise. The law that brought the combining seemed at the time as good as HP-Compaq, but in the end it seems that Customs and Immigration know what is best and should be separate entities.
I bring this up only because the local new-hirees for Customs/Immigration (They call it Customs and Border Protection now) have pretty much no idea what they are doing, leaving the people about to retire wondering what kind of things will be let through the border once they are gone.
Re:OK, so, (Score:3, Interesting)
The first part of that is the investigation of wrongdoing by the appropriate authorities. Hopefully, I don't need to point out that we only have one side of the story here, and the toy store lady is hardly a neutral observer. Customs has the power to seize infringing goods on the spot as part of their investigation, and yet they simply ordered her to take it off the shelves and then left without them? Something doesn't add up there, and I won't be a bit surprised to learn that there's more to the story than she's letting on...
Re:Fear of powers (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Fear of powers (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
When the Dept of Homeland Security was created, lots of existing agencies got rolled in. Including Customs. These weren't some new brand of "terrorist hunter" agent. These were Customs agents (now part of Homeland Security) doing what they always do.
If there hadn't been a bureaucratic reshuffling of federal agencies, perhaps Cowboy Neal wouldn't be so confused, and this wouldn't make the front page.
Re:It's a case of priorities (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorry, Osama (and the like) doesnt give a flying fuck about the fed raising intrest rates. He does however care about the fact that we have been imposing our will by force (killing millions of innocents) in the middle east for 50 plus years.
The world is not as dependant on us as we are on the world, because
The government does not exist to cater to the rich and pander to the mega-corps. The entire principle of this government is to protect the PEOPLE. Mainly from each other, but also from forgiegn invaders, hostile parties, unjust laws, unjust influence (hello church, meet mr state. Stay the fsck away.) etc etc
We need a government that leaves the rest of the world alone, because no matter what we do internationally we WILL piss someone off, and we gain what in the end ? GM makes an extra $200 per car because it was made overseas ? Nothing gets cheaper for us, it gets cheaper (or more profitable) for the ownership class.
Just so you know (I do believe the backyard bombing thing was in reference to pearl harbor) we broke a deal with the japanese BEFORE they bombed pearl harbor. Thats WHY they bombed pearl harbor. So we werent minding our own business and playing fair. We were fucking other countries over. Exactly like we are now.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Back to Basics (Score:3, Interesting)
Because of the fear involved in their department, they need to be very careful the way they deal with the public, especially when the public they're dealing with is obviously and completely unrelated to a serious threat against the Homeland (and I'm not talking about a minor "economic" threat like selling cheap copies of toys). Of course, this won't matter to many of them, because unfortunately there are many in law enforcement at all levels who do it because of the power they can yield by flashing a badge, turning on a blue light, or calling somebody on the telephone and dropping the name of their agency.
I am voting for Bush next Tuesday for a variety of reasons (please try not to get inflamed about my choice, which might be different than yours) and I often defend the actions of the DHS (although I wasn't convinced and am still not convinced that we needed a new cabinet-level department to keep us safe) and I often defend the Patriot Act (though I have an open mind about parts of it that might need to be ammended). But I'm not going to be partisan and find an imaginary way to defend anybody from the DHS contacting a retailer and making them remove an item from their shelves without clearly and kindly demonstrating the reasons for the removal, just because I think that's supporting my candidate. These guys would have gotten all the response that they wanted from the retailer by simply saying they were with the Customs Service. Suddenly everybody who is a part of the DHS (which is a LOT of people) wants to go around name-dropping so they get an extra little fear out of everybody. It's completely unneccessary and ridiculous. I would say that many, many people in the DHS should never have to tell the public in their introductions what cabinet department they're in. It will inevitably generate more fear and intimidation than is necessary.
I believe this is not a policy problem, though. This is that rampant problem with the lower levels of law enforcement, the name dropping and ego trip problem. Unfortunately, there's little that can be done about this, except for a change in the culture, which can take decades.
RP
Trademark, was Re:Fear of powers (Score:1, Interesting)
However, there may be a genuine question whether or not Rubik's cube has a valid trademark in their cube's "trade dress." You cannot trademark anything that is functional. Therefore, anything covered by the 1980 patent *cannot* be trademarked. My guess is that the trademark extends only to the color combination on the puzzle, not to the fact that it is a cube with rotating faces. If the Magic Cube has different colors, I don't think it could be infringing even if some other "cube" puzzle did infringe.
Maybe someone with the time to do it could chase down and share the relevant facts.
This post really stinks ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I think there should be a mechanism to mod down an entire story when it is presented like this. Pretty sad.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:3, Interesting)
Agents from the "US Trademark Enforcement" office call up this same lady asking that the toy be removed. The lady would probably answer back: "What are you nuts? Go get a court order. Or at least talk to the manufacturer of the toy first; I only sell the things".
So the real issue isn't that the agents weren't doing their job. The issue is that trademark enforcement apparently now falls under the juristiction the Department of Homeland Security. The agents can threaten this store owner and get their way without due process. All they need to do is mention which department they are with and hint that they might somehow invoke the terrorism card (which there is almost no defense against).
Re:Fear of powers (Score:3, Interesting)
Hey, wait a minute! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Fear of powers (Score:3, Interesting)
Trademark? (Score:2, Interesting)
So they've trademarked the appearance of the Rubiks Cube (TM)...
How?
As a corporate logo - this I can see.
As an actual product? You must be joking!
Still, and I never thought I'd say this, kudos to the lawyer who came up with this innovative solution to patent expiration.
Can anyone tell me what would happen if these toys were manufactured by a company based outside the US? Would they be banned/confiscated on importation?
Whibla.