Reply To: Greenstuff World Vs Sword N Steele

[slayerofworldsParticipant 3449xp 3]

TWS Translation to English…

Hello and welcome to an exceptionally serious #TWS video. Because at the end of December 2019 and the beginning of January 2020, a few things happened which finally caused me as channel operator to permanently delete certain videos in my channel.
Therefore I would like to inform you about 3 things in the following minutes:
– First: A brief summary of the events surrounding the Canadian YouTube channel Sword ‘n’ Steele, against which the Spanish company Green Stuff World had briefly taken action.
Secondly, and this is also the most important point: to illustrate with a few examples how the Spanish company Green Stuff World has partly acted in recent years.
Thirdly: That I will not present, recommend or link any products of Green Stuff World anymore and have removed older videos about this from the TWS archive completely.
Let’s start with point 1, current events. On December 28th, 2019, Naomi released a video on her channel Sword ‘n’ Steele about the Vallejo colors that were released at the end of October 2019 and are now called “The Shifters”. Naomi had bought these colours under her original name “Colorshift” and called them “Colorshift” in the video name and showed the original package and bottle designs in the video itself.
About 2 days after publication Naomi’s video was taken offline by YouTube and Naomi herself was also given a warning by YouTube – a so-called strike. The off-line strike was at the instigation of the company Green Stuff World, which has held the rights to the name “Colorshift” as a brand name for Spain since October 31st, 2019, and wanted to protect its trademark rights in this way. Color manufacturer Vallejo had – as just mentioned – already renamed these colors to “The Shifters”, but unfortunately Naomi didn’t know about this.
So Naomi first contacted YouTube and was given the company Green Stuff World as her direct contact for possible clarification. Naomi immediately wrote to Green Stuff World and after a short correspondence she received the promise that Green Stuff World would contact YouTube to avert the damage caused to Naomi.
Fortunately, this was possible within a day and Naomi’s original video was also back online with a new title and modified thumbnail. On December 31st, 2019, Naomi had also uploaded a specially censored version. And in another video from December 30th, 2019, Naomi describes the whole process from her perspective. All these 3 videos I have linked above and in the video description.
Let’s just briefly summarize:
– Vallejo will release new colors called “Colorshift” at the end of October 2019.
– On October 31st Green Stuff World gets the rights to the brand name “Colorshift” for Spain after a previous application for Spain.
– On December 28th Naomi releases her video and about 2 days later Green Stuff World has Naomi’s video blocked via YouTube.
– About one day later Green Stuff World took back almost everything from Naomi.
Regarding the legal dispute between Green Stuff World and Vallejo about the brand name “Colorshift”, it has to be added that this name is widely used in the hobby sector and many paint manufacturers use the term “Colorshift” – and this long before Green Stuff World launched their colors on the market. Furthermore, Green Stuff World has registered this brand name only for Spain and not worldwide.
Nevertheless, I personally was initially inclined to see Naomi only as an unfortunate victim in a trademark dispute between Green Stuff World and Vallejo. I also felt it was right that Green Stuff World wanted to protect her registered trademark. Of course it could have been solved differently with Naomi and without a temporary YouTube strike, but at least the matter was quickly resolved. … However, in the meantime a certain shitstorm had descended on Green Stuff World and the case was intensively discussed on a wide variety of platforms. But whether this has influenced Green Stuff World’s decision to give in would be pure speculation in my opinion.
On January 2nd, 2020, I received the following statement on request to Green Stuff World with the following words among others: “…We have been in direct contact with Naomi from Sword ‘n’ Steele all the time.“
According to Naomi, this is not true, the contact came about only at Naomi’s request and after her original video was turned off. “All the time” is not for me.
“We were not really aware of the actions that YouTube would take and the consequences these would have. We thought there would simply be a warning so then we could talk.“
The contact to Naomi could have been sought before and directly. For example via her Facebook page or via the e-mail in her YouTube imprint.
“We are a small family business, this is my hobby and my life, and I am very proud of what has been achieved after many years of hard work, and it hurts me deeply that in a matter of hours, hundreds of people are destroying it. For all this, because the damage to the Sword ‘n’ Steele channel has been corrected and it was never intended, I would like to ask you please help to returns this situation to normal and stop this madness.”
After that I was personally inclined for a moment to see Green Stuff World as a victim in the legal dispute with Vallejo … But while reading the numerous comments on YouTube, Facebook and the news portal http://brueckenkopf-online.com I came across a few hints that Green Stuff World is not always so strict about copyright or copyright itself.
Therefore we come now to point 2, the behaviour of Green Stuff World in the past years towards some manufacturers or dealers. I have made some longer telephone calls to get a first-hand description of the following facts:
Between 2010 and 2012 the German modeller Stefan Niehues (https://beesputty.com) developed his so-called “Tube Tool”. The basic idea came from experiments with a threaded rod to depict structures on footballers’ socks. With his “Tube Tool”, he virtually reversed this process to create different structures with grooved plates on modeling pastes. For example for tubes …
Stefan then sold his “Tube Tool” on his own and from 2013 on also via the German dealers PK-PRO and Battlefield-Berlin, among others.
On 12 March 2014, the owner of Green Stuff World, Israel Soriano Garcia, filed two so-called design patents for modelling tools with the European Union Intellectual Property Office – EUIPO for short – and released the “Roll Maker” tool via his company. This “Roll Maker” tool was an exact 1:1 copy including all dimensions of the “Tube Tool”.
But wait! Design patent? What is a design patent?
Wikipedia says about this. “A design patent is an industrial property right that gives its owner an exclusive right to use an aesthetic appearance (shape, colour, form) for certain goods. … ” And very important: “A design right is an unexamined property right. In the registration procedure, the prerequisites of novelty and individual character are not examined, but only formal requirements for registration”.
This means that you do not have to be the originator of a product to register this right. Fulfilling certain formalities is enough. The fees for such a registration are also relatively low at about 400-500€ and as luck would have it, both Green Stuff World and the EUIPO are located in the same place: Alicate, Spain.
Following this design registration the following happened. Green Stuff World submitted its design entry to the sales platform eBay, including PK-PRO as the distribution channel for the “Tube Tool”. Thus the sale of the “Tube Tool” developed by Stefan Niehues was immediately prohibited there due to copyright infringement.
Of course Stefan turned to Green Stuff World, but neither a reasonable dialogue nor an agreement was reached. As a demonstrable author, Stefan could of course now have gone to court in Alicante, Spain, to enforce his rights. But this would not only have taken several months or even years, but would also have cost several thousand euros in expenses and costs. Even if Stefan himself had previously registered such a design or even applied for a patent. In order to enforce his claims, a lawsuit in Alicate against Green Stuff World would have been necessary in any case.
And all this for an article that initially cost around 20€ and later only 10€, of which Stefan has only sold 750 copies to date. In short: Neither the registration of a design nor a patent would have protected Stefan Niehues from Green Stuff World’s action. And a lawsuit abroad would have been out of proportion to the costs and the earnings of his product. But here we are with copyright law and a completely different construction site …
After Green Stuff World had released their motif punches or leaf punches in July 2016, the German online retailer PKO-PRO decided to include such tools in their product range as well. The inquiry with a Chinese producer showed that in Europe already some customers were supplied with such tools. But the Chinese producer emphasized that he owns a patent on these tools since 2006.
In coordination with PK-PRO, new motifs for the sheets to be punched were then designed, not only to obtain their own products, but also to differentiate themselves from the Green Stuff World punching tools.
At the end of September 2016 PK-PRO officially announced its “PK-Punches” with the help of some photos. The “PK-Punches” were available from October 1st, 2016.
But exactly one day before, on September 30th, 2016, Green Stuff World filed another design application at the European Union Intellectual Property Office. This time, however, the design patent related to the shape of the punches. In other words, not on any sheets that can be punched, but on the haptic shape of the punch, for which the Chinese producer has held a patent since 2006.
Impossible? No, because, as already mentioned, the registration procedure for such a design does NOT examine the requirements of novelty and individual character, but only some formal requirements for registration.
With this design, Green Stuff World shortly afterwards stopped the sales of the “PK-Punches” on eBay and amazon. Because, as already mentioned in the first example, it is completely sufficient on these platforms to assert a claim for copyright infringement or similar. eBay and amazon then blocked the item and, in the worst case, directly the entire marketplace shop of the supplier. Only when the plaintiff – in this case Green Stuff World – withdraws his accusation, would the sales of the PK-Punches have been possible again on eBay. For this, of course, it would have required either a concession or a court case with a verdict.
And as in the first example, such a trial in Alicante, Spain, is associated with considerable costs. In addition, the patent holder of the design applied for by Green Stuff Worlds is the Chinese producer.
What followed, however, were various lawyers’ letters between PK-PRO and Green Stuff World for about half a year. Ultimately without result, because at some point Green Stuff World simply stopped contacting us. This cost PK-PRO about 10.000€ in translation and legal fees and of course a lot of time … Although PK-PRO was able to sell its “PK-Punches” via its own webshop, it could only reach a part of its original customers. And as usual with new releases, the demand for such tools was already covered after half a year had elapsed.
As a reminder again the statement of Green Stuff World published on January 2nd, 2020:
“We are a small family business, this is my hobby and my life, and I am very proud of what has been achieved after many years of hard work…”
Well, I personally got a slightly different impression of the company Green Stuff World during my research. Although Green Stuff World has always remained within the framework of the applicable laws in the cases I researched, I believe that they have consciously taken advantage of the corresponding loopholes in the law and procedures. There is no question that such “hard restraints” are also common in other industries, but legally sound does not automatically mean morally sound. At least for me.
Even the initially very harsh action against Naomi’s video, in which a shutdown and warning was issued directly via YouTube, does not fit for me with Green Stuff Worlds’ statement: “We would like to apologise again for this serious misunderstanding, for having damaged her channel in some way, and for having made her part of a legal dispute between companies that have nothing to do with her. The shutdown and warning was at the request of Green Stuff World – how could this have been a misunderstanding?
After all these statements, events and my researches I have come to the personal conclusion that I will not buy, use and present any more products from Green Stuff World via the TWS channel and thus recommend and thus advertise you.
I have deleted the two TWS reviews of Green Stuff World – even if one of the videos was the ninth most popular video in the TWS archive. But I gladly accept the loss of views, likes and reach. Furthermore I will remove all links to Green Stuff World from all TWS video descriptions in the next days.
Nevertheless – and I want to emphasize this here – this is my personal opinion and decision. I do not want to call for a shitstorm against or even boycott of Green Stuff World. With this video I only want to show you the result of my research and inform you about backgrounds you might not have had any insight into so far. And so that nobody thinks that I only published this video to get as many YouTube clicks as possible out of the current situation, this video is NOT monetized. That means, no matter how many people watch this video, I don’t get one cent of advertising revenue for it.
I also want to avoid any hate comments or further shitstorm against Green Stuff World. Accordingly I have deactivated the comment area below this video and also at my corresponding Facebook postings.
Just take your time to form your own opinion … and if you want to continue shopping at Green Stuff World and/or present their products, please do so. I definitely don’t want to dictate anything to anyone or impose my opinion.
So, that’s it from my side regarding Green Stuff World. I hope to see you again next Friday for a more pleasant hobby topic … See you!