Hasbro's G.I. JOE Q&A Round Four 2008

[Chopper]

I did a google yesterday and went blind.

That's what the net is for;-) Seriously tho, any lawyer types here? I'll ask my Bass player, when I see him otherwise. He's a lawyer. Really, he is.

[Flint]

The rules with copyright is that we must continually use a name in order to keep the mark. We no long hold the mark for the Red Shadow.

Yes, Hasbro owns any releases of GI Joe under Action Force. Many of the names used originally are no longer trademarked.

Fans who want to produce figures and sell them on a mass basis (not a single custom figure) should talk to Hasbro directly about the opportunity. Due to trademark rights, fans cannot produce and sell their own figures.

So looking at question 2 there, I get the impression that they still own the name Action Force, but not Z Force, SAS Force, Q Force, Space Force or the Red Shadows.

Does anybody know anything about registering a copyright? I did a google yesterday and went blind.

Well, I am very curious as to how they answered with this: "Yes, Hasbro owns any releases of GI Joe under Action Force. Many of the names used originally are no longer trademarked."...
I took that as meaning the more articulated figures that WERE GI Joes originally like Red Laser, Gaucho, Quarrel, etc as their likeness is under constant use by Hasbro.... however where that leaves Quickfire, Beaver, Skip, Wheels, Baron Ironblood, etc ...who knows ?
I do not know, but if any of you have lawyer buddies I would definately look into copyrights and trademarks... who knows Baron maybe you could end up owning some of these and marketing them... I just don't know. But I don't see as it's been over 20 years and Hasbro never updated or used Wheels for example how they can possibly still own the copywrite or trademark to him.
I am also thinking that perhaps Devils Due/Image might own Red Shadow and Black Major because they used them in the GI Joe comic book perhaps they aquired the rights already ???
Lots of very interesting questions and possibilties of who owns what and who COULD own what...
maybe instead of pooling prizes together next time we donate some money for a copyright lawyer and get this sorted out...
Sadly other than agreeing that there is an amazing probable possibility out there that the trademarks for those figures and possibly the copyrights themselves are out there for the majority of SAS, Z-Force, Q-Force, etc I have no idea about how to go about finding out and aquiring them. ... as the old song goes "...Send LAWYERS, guns, and money ...." I now know why they ask for the lawyers first.

[Space Commander]

WOW! Thank you for asking my question.

As I suspected..., they still own the GI JOE-type figures... but not the straight-legged Palitoy ones!

And (I may be wrong here, Baron) I think they meant they own the Joes who were , but not the name itself... And certainly not , , , , and . Nor for that matter.

Crikey, we could really be onto something here. Bugger waiting for someone else to revive , we could do it ourselves!


SPACE COMMANDER

[zakkfan]

can anyone make figure molds??
lol

[Double-Tap]

my reading of this is action force wave 1 and 2 are up for grabs but hasbro own the later af with duke etc.
there is nothing to stop us or anyone else making action force/red shadows.
there is also nothing to stop us approaching hasbro in relation to leasing gi joe molds.
i am also under the impression that if you take an original fig but change it, by adding parts or chopping off and deleting date/name stamps, so the fig is no longer recognised there is no copyright infringement. (i may be wrong with this).
if we are serious about this the first step would be registering tm or copyright ourselves but i have no idea how to do this.
i'm really pleased with hasbros response to our questions
Bill

[Double-Tap]

can anyone make figure molds??
lol

i've been looking into this for a couple of months but keep getting the run around. my original plan was to set up a custom parts shop like broken arrow. i'm waiting for a call from a mate who works in the local model shop who apparently molds his own parts but so far nothing. i've looked online for tutorials etc but so far nothing, but i'm gonna keep trying
Bill

[Space Commander]

can anyone make figure molds??
lol

Exactly what I was getting at! (Though if we make new figures, I think we should mark them [perhaps on the back] to prevent them being sold-on to unsuspecting buyers as 1980s originals discovered in a disused factory somewhere... ).


SPACE COMMANDER

[Crimson Rage]

So all the 'old-school' AF names have lapsed (bar the likes of BREAKER and STALKER I guess). All the more reason why DDP should have looked into producing an 'ACTION FORCE vs RED SHADOWS' comic to fill the void of losing the Joe comic license.

[Double-Tap]

So all the 'old-school' AF names have lapsed (bar the likes of BREAKER and STALKER I guess). All the more reason why DDP should have looked into producing an 'ACTION FORCE vs RED SHADOWS' comic to fill the void of losing the Joe comic license.

jamar needs to get in there with red dawn

[Crimson Rage]

So all the 'old-school' AF names have lapsed (bar the likes of BREAKER and STALKER I guess). All the more reason why DDP should have looked into producing an 'ACTION FORCE vs RED SHADOWS' comic to fill the void of losing the Joe comic license.

jamar needs to get in there with red dawn

It's like I said in the thread with Jamar's IDW Joe review: DDP's Corps comic looks pretty neat (fom the preview), but c'mon! The Corps?? Rather obscure choice to try and vill the void I'd say - A 'Palitoy AF' title would have appealed to everyone a lot more (I would have thought!). Maybe Jamar should look into getting professional backing for RED DAWN...