Had a bad experience a few years back when some of our products were nominated for best new product on show.
A large international us publisher asked us to quote on large runs on a few of our designs. We were told blatendly that if our price was not right they would merely have us copied in the east.6 months later at another show similar copies of our products were on sale thro their rep. group.We do have specific registrations on certain of our products but understand that if artwork is altered by a few points this overides any registration.Unfortunately we understand that we cannot register our process[which we originated]but sadly cannot take the matter further for 2 reasons.Firstly we are a small operation & cannot afford lenghtly legal costs with a company with so many resources & secondly there probably are sufficient alterations in the artwork to bypass any prior licencing registration.
Apreciate if you could kindly advise as to exactly what
variations comprise allowable artwork deviation from originals & what processes can /cannot be licenced.
We would like to market some more products in US but are reluctant as we have also had some of our other designs copied by immoral persons.So much so that we have been forced to only work thro reps for first 2 years after release & not place on site our latest designs/products.[Fortunately we are currently producing at least 20 new designs monthly & new products every show season ]
Have been very successful in other country's but we like most foreign producers are up against certain favoured countries who are allowed to link their currency directly to the $ & also obtain export subsidies & incentives by their government which together with their relative slave labour costs do not exactly make the playing fields level.[Especially since their is little origination or licencing respected]
Appreciate your kind advice.