Splendid use of Homeland Securities Time!

Homeland Security Agents Visit Toy Store

Thu Oct 28, 5:20 PM ET Strange News - AP


ST. HELENS, Ore. - So far as she knows, Pufferbelly Toys owner Stephanie Cox hasn't been passing any state secrets to sinister foreign governments, or violating obscure clauses in the Patriot Act.

So she was taken aback by a mysterious phone call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to her small store in this quiet Columbia River town just north of Portland.

"I was shaking in my shoes," Cox said of the September phone call. "My first thought was the government can shut your business down on a whim, in my opinion. If I'm closed even for a day that would cause undue stress."

When the two agents arrived at the store, the lead agent asked Cox whether she carried a toy called the Magic Cube, which he said was an illegal copy of the Rubik's Cube, one of the most popular toys of all time.

He told her to remove the Magic Cube from her shelves, and he watched to make sure she complied.

After the agents left, Cox called the manufacturer of the Magic Cube, the Toysmith Group, which is based in Auburn, Wash. A representative told her that Rubik's Cube patent had expired, and the Magic Cube did not infringe on the rival toy's trademark.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents went to Pufferbelly based on a trademark infringement complaint filed in the agency's intellectual property rights center in Washington, D.C.

"One of the things that our agency's responsible for doing is protecting the integrity of the economy and our nation's financial systems and obviously trademark infringement does have significant economic implications," she said.

Six weeks after her brush with Homeland Security, Cox told The Oregonian she is still bewildered by the experience.

"Aren't there any terrorists out there?" she said.

That's about the most disturbing thing I've read in a long time.


- yoshi

Should she have been given a chance to plead her case in court? They can just force you to throw it out on a simple complaint? Was the cube made of pot?



Why shake down little shopkeep instead of going to the source. WHAT IS GOING ON!

Yo that is jacked up! Homeland Security is a fucking joke. I have crossed the border so many times both ways with shit in my car. The border is no different than it was pre-911. The net that is used in the name of Homeland Security catches dolphins. The people they are catching and harassing are not the ones they are really looking for. The douche bags they are most concerned about already know all the ways around their silly net.

Rumsfield can EAT ME!

<< Should she have been given a chance to plead her case in court? They can just force you to throw it out on a simple complaint? Was the cube made of pot? >>

Ganja Cube....SWEET!

When it comes down to it, they're supposed to investigate any complaint that falls within their pervue. If they find anything as a result, they should enforce the law that falls within their jurisdiction.

There should have been some research into the status of the patent before going to the store.

And, you know, just because the guy that makes "Magic Cubes" says it's not an illegal copy doesn't really mean that it isn't. Suppose that guy's blowing smoke and the feds are right. Shouldn't she be grateful that they let her remove the items instead of just carting her off to jail?

So why start with her, why not start with the company that makes them? Why a little shopkeeper?



Yea but doesn't it have to go to court first before they are given the authority to ask her to remove the product? DHS gets to be judge & jury? Where's the process?

Homeland Security : Fear :: War on Drugs : Excess


Either or,
Both and,
or
Neither Nor?
or
Other?

Jack - you bring up an important point that I didn't even think about. The question that I have to ask myself - Am I so accustomed to hearing about this sort of behavior from my government that I do not even notice it anymore?

When I posted – my initial ire with the situation was that government man-power was wasted on something that amounts to harassment of a small business owner.

Grim – you may be correct in assuming that just because the guy who makes "Magic Cubes" says it's not an illegal copy doesn't really mean that it isn't. Suppose that guy's blowing smoke and the feds are right.”

However, the assumption that a citizen should ever be hauled off to jail for something like this without due process is incredulous. The article only reports that they made her remove the items from the shelf and not that the items were seized, but still, it seems to me that law enforcement is entering into a civil issue and should not ever be called upon in something like this unless it involves enforcement of a violation of a direct court order.

It is very heavy handed and a little scary.

Not to mention a waste of law enforcement resources.

Personally, I don't believe enforcing the law is ever a waste of law enforcement resources. I'd be happy if the local police would actually start writing tickets for people driving in the rain with no headlights, but they won't, because it doesn't generate enough revenue for the city/county/state.

Even if the Rubik's Cube patent has expired, the toy may implement all or part of some other patent that isn't expired. Maybe the patent hold was shopping for a toy for his grandson at this little shop and noticed the patent infringement and called the authorities himself. If it's going to be investigated, they have to start somewhere, and if all they're told is that it's a toy in a shop, where else are they supposed to start?

And if they determined there was a potential violation to investigate, the first step is to ask her to remove the item while they investigate. If she refused, they'd have gotten a court order for her to cease and desist.

The second step in any criminal proceeding is an arrest. No big deal there.

Personally i think its a very good thing! shows that they look into EVERYTHING nothing too big or too small.

Why just one shopkeep, why not all resellers, or the company that makes them. One little toy store? That makes about as much sense as Chewbacca living on Endore with the Ewoks. It just don't make sense.

Using my mystical powers of information gathering (and google) I have cleverly learned that the patent for the Rubik's Cube would indeed have expired by now.

It was patented in Hungary in 1976. It was licensed to Ideal Toy Company under that patent.

Meanwhile, Larry Nichols who was a chemist in Massachusetts filed for a patent on a 2x2x2 cube puzzle in 1957 and was awarded a patent in 1972.

In 1984 he successfully won an infringement suit against Ideal.

Given the 17-20 year expiration date on patents (the law changed in 1995) and the lack of a Congressional intervention on behalf of the Rubik's Cube (which would be required to extend the patent), I would say that the Magic Cube is not in violation of patent infringement.

Maybe I should get a job at the Homeland Security Department in their small business patrol section. I could have saved the goverment a little gas money that wasn't needed in roughing up a small business owner.

edited: the law changed in 1995 not 1985. Corrected a typo.

Next step: Martial Law

Bear in mind, however, that Customs is now part of DHS, so all Customs agents are technically DHS agents, and this sort of thing, while silly, is definitely within Customs' pervue.

Grim - There has been an ongoing investigation into the disappearence of a little girl named Rilya Wilson here in Florida (because she may have been taken across state lines it has involved federal investigators). She disappeared from a foster home under the care of Florida Social Services. She is only one. The Florida agency could not account for nearly 1,000 children in its system of 48,000 children.

This is worthy of investigation, but until the press reported the problem, virtually nothing was being done. To date, less is being done than should be, due to a lack of resources. In my opinion, this is much more worthy of the manpower to investigate than the enforcement of a potential but unproven copyright violation.

For that matter, everytime I visit the swapmeet here I see egregious violations of copyright laws with obvious knockoff products that I'm sure were imported into our country by the millions. Seems to me that investigation of incoming shipments of this sort of thing would even be a higher priority.

If we have enough enforcement manpower to knock on the doors of mom & pop shops about copyright violations that are not even proven - then we are paying for too many people. If on the other hand egregious violations are being ignored, while average everyday citizens are being shaken down, then we have an entirely different type of problem. One that boils down to he who has the most money and power being the first in line as opposed to real triage. In other words - corruption.

The bottom line is that I think someone who had connections higher up wanted to harass the store owner and resources from our government were applied to do that. Either that - or someone with connections wanted to stall the competitive product from reaching market . Either way - it boils down to an application of resources because of someone's connections. Just one womans opinion.

Why are people dismissing this as business as usual? What the hell??

Because we're so used to Bush saying terrorism this terrorism that blah blah blah. Doesn't take a genius to figure out what's really going on. A slow and steady take over of the government invading our daily lives, on a whim.

Granted I can see that if it were a serious issue I would contact the Homeland Security offices, but, to see a minor thing like that, why not just go to the local Customs office, or heck even the police department if something was there earlier. But instead, had to go to a 'higher authority'

Well, I'd not say it's business as usual, as I dunno what the usual business is.

What I was pointing out was, all Customs agents are now DHS agents. So... one can view a visit from Customs as a visit from Homeland Security, and while still being perfectly accurate, illuminate things a little differently.

So only the name "Rubik's Cube" is protected in the US. There have been dozens and dozens of immitations, most of which coming out in the 80's right along side Rubik's.

(If the preceeding quote sounded like common sense to you, you should read more about Michael Badnarik before heading to the voting booth next week.)

Why is "the man" hassling someone who runs a toystore and not the people making these products? That's not normal is it?

Ti that is likely the best quote I have read in a long time. We are fear ridden lemmings right now in the US. We graciously give control of all of our powers over to the government under the guise of Homeland Security. We turn in our neighbors for acting "weird", saying the wrong thing, being the wrong religion/color, or selling something we don't agree with. There is a problem here America!!

Where did we fall off the soveriegn people wagon and march single file into the train cars of terror?!!!

Wake up people good god it could be us next. We could get a knock on the door for participating in this thread and questioning the validity of an action taken by an increasingly totaltarian government...lets not be the frog in the warm and cozy pot of water...they will light the burner while we sleep.

By in large the US has turned into a bunch of glazed donut eyed zombies crying out for laws that make children wear arm pads to ride their bikes and stop people from parking in their own front yards. We have been so brainwashed by all this terrorist hubbabaloo that we think everything (including selling a magic cube) is a threat to homeland security. We need to stop rallying around the flag, stop thinking of the government as our golden bull to be worshiped and start making decisions on our own.

We need to read our constitution and stop allowing bought and paid for off the clearance rack judges to decide our fate. We need to protect states rights. We need to make sure that this country remains for the people and by the people instead of the current for homeland security to "protect" the people from themselves.

You can't make that statement, because your research is incomplete.

The original article didn't say the item infringed on the Rubik's Cube patent. It said it was a copy of a Rubik's Cube, and infringed on a patent.

Perhaps it infringes some other patent that hasn't been specifically mentioned.

Where would you suggest they start the investigation? In your living room? If the report they received named that store as the location where the item could be found, then there's not a whole lot of other options as to where to start the investigation.

I can make that statement and furthermore I did make that statement.

Perhaps it was infringing on the patent rights of a group of elves living in a hollow tree making cookies. Stranger things have happened.

Have you ever reported any of these people to customs? If you did, maybe they'd be investigated, too.