(In)justice prevails

Imitation is not flattery in the toy industry; it's a scourge to be reckoned with

Fred Ramirez -- Playthings, 7/1/2004

To the Editor:

D & L Company created the first Stomp Rocket in the early 1990s. When we did, we not only created a new business and new job opportunities, we created a new category for the toy industry.

For years, we enjoyed designing and building our rockets, knowing both children and adults would be playing with a safe, non-explosive rocket device. Over the past decade, the term “stomp rocket” has become a generic term, used to describe a toy rocket launched by jumping or “stomping” on a bladder. Today we are selling to the second generation of Stomp Rocket enthusiasts.

Over these years, no matter what we would dream up, our primary design goal has been “safety.” Our rockets have received significant industry awards.

With that being said, all has not been rosy within our Stomp Rocket world.

Two major problems have taken their toll on D & L. One issue involves the Consumer Products Safety Commission and the other— the scourge of our industry—the knockoff artists.

In May 2002, the Consumer Product Safety Commission forced us to stop making our original line of Stomp Rockets. After almost 10 years of manufacturing and worldwide distribution of these toys, the CPSC decided toy rockets with small diameter nose cones were “hazardous.”

Over the years, eight accidents occurred that were attributed to consumer misuse of the product. But those eight were enough to incite the CPSC to take action against D & L: If we didn't remove our rockets from the marketplace voluntarily, the CPSC would, “…contact Toys R Us and other retailers that sold Stomp Rockets and request that they conduct a recall of the products.”

Under CPSC threat, we voluntarily pulled our products from the marketplace.

Even though we complied with the CPSC, demand for Stomp Rockets remained and a market void developed. This void opened an opportunity for—you guessed it—the knockoff artists.

Now, we are not talking about a product that uses the same Stomp Rocket principles to launch a rocket. We're talking about exact duplicates of our Stomp Rockets; the rockets, the launch stand, the launch tube, the hose, the air bladder, even the nut and bolt! No ingenuity, no further development of the concept, just outright duplicates of the Stomp Rockets the CPSC forced us to remove.

So why hasn't the government forced the knockoff artists to remove their product from the retailer's shelves? Aren't the exact duplicates just as “hazardous?”

We asked the very same questions, many times and through many channels all the way to “the top” during 2002 and 2003. We got all kinds of answers; some verbal and some written. After all the agency's legalese, the restrictions on our original Stomp Rockets remained. But not for the knockoff artists.

This is where the problem starts to come full circle.

Over the past year we've had calls from consumers wanting their money back and complaining about the “inferior quality” or the “shoddy workmanship.” With a few questions we discover it's not a Stomp Rocket that they are complaining about. The retailer told them it was a “Stomp Rocket” and the consumer thinks we are manufacturing junk. Curse the generic.

As the scourge of our industry, the knockoff artists have been able to take advantage of situations like this because they are outside the boundaries of conscience and law. They will grab at anything to make a quick buck. So if a good idea is out there, or a good product is in the marketplace—zap, they'll simply copy it. And with today's technology, it's very, very easy, and it's very, very fast.

At the 2004 American International Toy Fair in New York, when we saw numerous knockoffs of the Vectron UFO at many different booths, I asked one of the manufacturers if he was concerned about the cease and desist order received from the Vectron representative that day. His response was immediate and direct: “That doesn't make any difference to us. We're in China.”

So how do we stop it? Not only are we losing jobs to offshore operations, we're now being bitten the second time when the people we lose our manufacturing to are then manufacturing and outright stealing the very product we had to send off shore to make.

So the question remains; what can be done and by whom? If nothing more, I hope my comments are a wake up call, because as the world gets smaller and technology advances, the first to market will be the winner. And the first to market could be a knock off of any manufacturer's “about to be announced” creativity.

Looking at the situation from D & L's perspective and experience, toy creators are not only giving the knock-off artists the products, our government gives them the marketplace.

Fred Ramirez, president, D & L Company, Porterville, Calif.