I spent the summer picking up teeny colorful rubber bands from my floor. Yes, my daughter was wrapped up in the Rainbow Loom craze. If you know a girl between the ages of about 6 and 10 years old, you know what I am talking about. You put little rubber bands on this plastic peg board, and weave them into a bracelet. Then, in what turns out to be a critical step in terms of the law, you use a little plastic clip shaped like a “c” to clasp the bracelet.
I never knew the background of the Rainbow Loom; my daughter got hers as a gift. Turns out it was invented by an engineer who was struggling to make bracelets with his young daughters because his hands were too big to handle the little rubber bands. It took off, and has been the “hot” toy of the summer. That means copycats abound. Now Mr. Ng, the founder and inventor, is suing one of those copycats, claiming that the c clip is protected by trade dress laws. You can view the actual complaint here.
What do you think about the Rainbow Loom? Is it distinctive? Should the law protect this invention, or allow competition?
10 Comments
Renee Schwacke posted on September 18, 2013 at 11:42 pm
After looking into the complaint, I think Rainbow Loom definitely had the right to file it. Although the shapes of the clip varied slightly, both clips use the exact same function to secure the bracelet. To make matters worse the Fun Loom is using pictures belonging to Rainbow Loom on its own website and facebook page, which acts as further evidence to prove that Fun Loom was aware of Rainbow Loom’s existence.
What makes this complaint interesting however, is that the product’s nature is so basic. In essence, anyone (with hands small enough) can make a replica of a Rainbow Loom bracelet without the loom, and use something like a paperclip to act as the c clip. No one would know the difference, and Rainbow Loom could not file a complaint. I do believe Fun Loom went too far however by bringing their product to the market. They essentially copied the c clip concept and the Rainbow Loom’s image.
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pepito posted on September 8, 2015 at 3:12 am
Gracias por la info, muy interesante. Desde ya te sigo.
Alvaro posted on April 21, 2016 at 4:36 pm
Muchas gracias, gran artículo.
Tuanity posted on May 30, 2016 at 6:13 am
Muy buen artículo, muchas gracias
Espesca.es posted on November 3, 2016 at 1:26 pm
Gran post compañeros, enhorabuena!
Gafas realidad virtual posted on November 3, 2016 at 1:27 pm
Gran información , entre todos hacemos internet más grande!
Senegal.es posted on November 29, 2018 at 4:53 am
Un buen punto de vista. Me ha sorprendido gratamente.
amuletosdelasuerte.org posted on January 6, 2019 at 8:10 am
Gracias por el post, me ha encantado, seguid así.
Trendigitaltech posted on September 23, 2020 at 2:12 pm
Gran información. Gracias!