Very exciting news! Team Wendy has recently won a court battle against Hong Kong-based FMA in regards to the their counterfeiting of Team Wendy’s intellectual property. The final judgement and permanent injunction can be read below:
Additionally, Team Wendy has released a brief statement regarding the matter:
Team Wendy decided to go after a Chinese/Hong Kong company (FMA) that has been knocking off our intellectual property. After we educated the court about the potential confusion and safety issues inherent in FMA’s knock-offs, the court entered the attached judgment in our favor. A nice victory/statement against those stealing American intellectual property.
Congratulations to Team Wendy for the court victory, and hopefully this ruling will serve as a precedent for ceasing any future instances of copyright infringement of gear by foreign companies.
Tags: Team Wendy
Good guys win!
Awesome! Let’s hope others follow Team Wendys path and fuck these people over.
As a manufacturer this is great news. Is this expected to help with illegal reproduction (IP infringement) or the importation of reproduced gear? Since a foreign company is not subject to US law.
The Chinese company may brush it off but the ruling can be used to halt the importation of the knock-offs and make those re-selling or facilitating think twice about being exposed to damages.
Great News, not only for the US
Didn’t wade through the decision. Can someone inform on what design features or concepts were the tipping point? Obviously it isn’t just that they were making a helmet? Were they using their logo?
Has OpsCore done the same? FMA is producing knock off’s of their helmets too.
Considering it states on all fma Helmet products that it isn’t a safty helmet it for airsoft use only I don’t see how it’s a good thing I own a fma ops core maritime and it would be common sense not to wear it in a harsh or challenging environment but then again people who will argue this are most Likely missing a brain cell or two, I see nothing wrong with copying a style for airsoft/cosplay use to make it more affordable toward the general market. Ops core would be doing themselves no favours by doing the same as the majority of people buying accessories from their site to use on their fma style i think team Wendy are just butt hurt because they can’t shift there helmet in a ops core saturated market
As someone who has been the victim of counterfeiting I definitely appreciate TW’s position.
Wow, you really are dumb. Like it takes a special kind of stupid to side with FMA on this one. While yes, TW’s argument is bullshit, i think that we can all agree that theft of intellectual property is wrong, especially by the Chinese.
What argument is that?
Also they literally called it an Exfil which is trademarked by Team Wendy.
I agree with Scott, to a point. I don’t have any real issues with counterfeiters if the product they’re making is being geared towards the airsoft/cosplay market. On the other hand, the one problem that might arise is that the consumer may not know that the product is geared towards airsoft and think that they’re getting the real deal for cheap but that’s also on the vendor to label the item properly and not try to make it confusing so that they can get a few more sales from the unwary consumer. The best thing forTW to do is to capitalize on this win and do what Magpul has done and create a line specifically for airsoft, make an airsoft line of their helmets out of a more basic plastic like those used for bike and skateboard helmets.
If the user doesn’t know what they are buying, chances are they wouldn’t be buying a real one either. Going after them for using the term exfil, ok. But to think that this case will really accomplish much I think is counter intuitive. If anything it’s spreading the word too those that may have not known that there are similar cheaper options out there. And for the guy wanting something to mount a camera on or light for hog hunting, he might be like idgaf about crush ratings, I just need a mount that’s on my head and at the same time can look good. This ain’t gonna stop anyone from going on to 100 different airsoft websites and ordering one on the cheap and having it shipped direct to their house. It may stop shops from stocking them, but then again there’s plenty of shops stocking element brand surefire knock offs and no ones kicking down their door.
I think ops core would have a much stronger case when it comes to these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/141040465166
Weren’t these just reproductions for airsoft/dress up for kids and so inclined adults?
They are / were. But the problem is that these TW and OpsCore “replicas” are close enough in appearance as to be potentially confusing and could mistakenly end up in a real-deal supply chain. This has happened to other companies and its no joke.
As Chris said above, this probably won’t bother the Chinese companies that much – but it should definitely give pause-for-thought to any US company that wants to / tries to import them…
Are you referring to the cat tourniquet incident? Comparing two cats and two helmets are two different ball games…. These knockoffs are plastic, like your kids toys plastic. Not a composite fiber mesh type blend. If you can’t tell the difference then id be leery about you being in a position to have to be wearing one
The issue isn’t as much the wearer as the buyer. A supply guy might not know the difference. He just sees item and price.
All the airsoft kids are crying.
Not really TW helmets are rather ugly and not commonly worn my many airsofters. This really is not a big deal for the Airsoft community.
So FMA was knocking off the TW helmets by the thousands to sell into the airsoft community because they were not wanted? Makes sense.
Yepp and they sat on the shelves unsold.
This is true. They are not “operator” enough for the dress up community. They are enough middle ground between sporty and tacticool though for someone wanting a mounting point without looking like they dress up. But much smaller market that the dress up
There are a few huge airsoft retailers that are responsible for the majority of the knock-off products in this country.
It amazes me that legit companies like Blue Force Gear, Tactical Tailor, and EO Tech allow their products to be sold by the same retailers.
Once a product proves to be popular and in-demand by that crowd, do they not realize that they will be next to be knocked-off?
Answer – patent it.
A patent doesn’t stop others from knocking you off. It just gives you the right to sue them.
Answer market it to the Airsoft community at a competitive price. There have been several attempts to knock off BFG but the feel short because of BTG sells to the Airsoft market. Or there is always the Magpul option and create a line of products for Airsoft as well.
The problem is that airsofters don’t need or want to pay the price a Made in USA performance product demands.
If say so. In my experience most airsofter would rather pay a little more for the real thing or at least a licensed product over a knock off if the prices are not ridiculous.
This is true, to some degree. But don’t forget airsoft would not be airsoft without some form of copying going on. It’d just be paintball. Before my days of kicking in doors for real, I did a stint in airsoft. The real looking and real type guns and gear is what swayed me that way from paintball. They are both essentially first person real life shoot em ups, just like laser tag. How many guys here, as a kid, would’ve went to a laser tag place and if you had the choice between an mp5 or a Nintendo duck hunt pistol wouldn’t have picked the mp5? You played laser tag, paintball, airsoft or even just with cap guns, because you wanted to role play as your favorite navy seal, delta force, van Damme, Steven segal, or whatever character. That’s all these airsofters are doing, just on a much larger scale of detail and investment. How many of y’all would’ve dropped the dime for a replica or demilled colt 45 and real leather belt and holster to play cowboys and Indians? No, you had a pot metal cap gun and plastic belt/holster with molded in billet loops and stitching that was most likely made in japan. But who was crying and screaming ‘Murcia back then?
Why should a company be forced to cheapen it’s product for a bunch of losers? Air soft and milsim crowd can get stuffed. And my idiot service member brothers need to stop selling their shit on eBay.
Many of your service member brothers also enjoy milsim and nobody is forced to do anything these are suggestions to make everyone happy.
Yeah airsofters are gay! Buncha wannabe call of duty posers! What else are they….yeah, they live in their parents basements and are prolly Virgins. And they’re either fat or asian. Did we cover all the stereotypes? Good, now that that’s out of the way and we can (should) agree that it’s quite irrelevant and pretty ignorant.
The right to incur the costs of initiating a lawsuit. I’m very happy for TW for deciding to stand up for themselves.
But Glock still tries… all the airsoft companies did was separate the slides from the frames and sell them all day like that.
How did the court rule in Team Wendys favor when their licensing/trademarked/patented items have no jurisdiction in China?? I’ve always thought that was the case in relation to Glock going after the airsoft clones…
But they do in the US. Import it and lose it at the docks. That’s how this works.
And that is happening all the time. I’ve seen it firsthand. Our Customs folks know exactly what to look for, and are doing a really good job.
Not sure if being sarcastic or not…
Like stated above, this may stop a shipping container full of helmets but it will not stop the one helmet going straight to the customer from HK
Not sure if being sarcastic or not…
Like stated above, this may stop a shipping container full of helmets but it will not stop the one helmet going straight to the customer from HK