Chinese toys are repeatedly "infringed"

Due to copyright infringement, Russia's Novosibirsk Customs recently confiscated a batch of toys imported from China, totaling more than 2,500 pieces. This is not the first time that Chinese toys have encountered export turmoil due to copyright infringement issues.
Russia confiscates Chinese-made toys for copyright infringement
It is understood that the toys seized this time were imported by a local company in Novosibirsk. According to Novosibirsk customs data, the company declared more than 2,500 toys with famous Russian cartoon characters to the customs. However, in the subsequent investigation, customs staff found that neither the importer nor the manufacturer had signed any licensing agreement with the copyright owner of the cartoon character.
According to Russian regulations, counterfeit goods are usually destroyed. However, in this case, Novosibirsk Customs said that although a case can be filed under the terms of copyright infringement, it has not yet decided how to deal with the confiscated toys. In 2008, more than 16,000 toys were destroyed by the Russian side because they were accompanied by unauthorized former Soviet songs.
Behind the Infringement Case
The export blockage of Chinese toy companies due to infringement is not only happening in Russia. In September, a toy company in Fenghua had its product rejected by a German toy company because its product appearance infringed the appearance patent of a German toy company, causing the toy company to suffer huge losses. However, after investigation, it was found that the toy company processed and produced the product based on a sample provided by an Austrian customer, and because the product had not applied for relevant patents, the German company took advantage of the legal loophole to force the registration in advance and oppose the Chinese company's lawsuit.
Since most of my country's toy export companies are still pure OEMs, they have little or no say in the design process, which makes them more vulnerable to infringement. On the other hand, some toy companies are not very aware of patent protection when expanding overseas markets, and are also prone to lawsuits.

Toy companies should strengthen their awareness of patent protection
In recent years, there have been numerous trade frictions caused by Chinese companies’ negligence in trademark or patent protection. From time-honored Chinese brands to branded home appliances and popular foods, many well-known brands in China have faced infringements from foreign trademark or patent preemptive registrations. It is understood that due to the lack of corporate trademark protection awareness, companies entangled in trademark preemptive registrations often pay a high price. Whether the company whose trademark is preemptively registered abandons the original trademark and creates a new brand, or buys it back at a high price, or cancels the preemptively registered trademark through legal means, it has increased the company's operating costs to varying degrees, delayed the time for the product to occupy the market, and reduced its market share.

We would also like to remind toy companies, especially toy processing companies, that when accepting samples and processing products, they should first find out whether they infringe on the relevant rights of others. They should also pay attention to safeguarding their own rights and interests during overseas sales and actively apply for patent protection.