Robopredinator
Super Freak
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2011
- Messages
- 954
- Reaction score
- 82
CC is such a joke. They speak out of their ass most the time so we'll see what actually happens.
You're speaking the truth Gosling. Paul runs his mouth too much and their Endo and BO Rex were bait-and-switches. I haven't checked out CC's threads in awhile because of this crap but just recently checked out the 1:2 Robocop bust. Apparently, people are critical of the lip color - referring to it as lipstick - and Paul chimes performing damage control stating that Peter Weller actually wore lipstick during filming. I can't help but laugh at CC.
To avoid others stepping into the other Forum, here's what Paul has said on the issue:
As far as we know Iron Studios does not have a license. We sent Universal the link and are asking for clarification.
Paul
How do you get blind sided by a competitor if you have a global exclusive in your category? Something doesn’t seem right here.
Well the licensors at Universal have turned over four times in two years with the consolidation with Dreamworks.
As far as we know we are the exclusive over $150, Mattel is the exclusive under $150 and we have a call out for misc. scales for Think Geek.
We have our licensing agent looking into Iron Studios claims and I will be getting to the bottom of the issue. We didn't license South America, but they still couldn't produce anything that conflicts with my current lines.
We've decided that if we can't keep our exclusivity we will not be continuing with the license.
Paul
Choopie, go invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on a license and then have someone come in and try to take your license.
We've found out that if they are indeed going to make products they will be for South American sales only. So we will probably need to buy that territory as well to stop the incursion.
Our other option is to enforce third party sales, meaning they can't import any of this product to the US. This means someone like SS can't buy wholesale and sell it into the USA. We've already done this with a few Japanese companies and it stopped them in their tracks.
And since we are in negotiations now with Universal, before I write a check with five zeroes on it, your darn right I will fight for my exclusivity.
This is what happened when we bought the exclusive rights for Kong, Godzilla 2 and Jong vs Godzilla. Warner licensed P1 and while we are making a Kong piece, we restructured the deal since there was no exclusivity that was promised. We'll make a few pieces and out.
If Universal won't move forward we'll step away, we've had a good two year run.
Paul
What will most likely happen is we'll roll back to three territories and post a list of what we are going to make for 2018 and do a one year sell off.
We'll still finish seven or eight items we have in production and let them deal with other companies that don't pay their royalties.
If we find out that product has been imported to the states, we just have to go by a case by case basis and there are heavy fines for illegal imports. We would be enforcing our rights to the full extent of the law and contract. Also once we file with US customs they would be confiscated as they entered the states.
It may all be a moot point, with Prop 65 passing in California and new Universal regulations coming in 2018 it's going to change the landscape of factories that can actually handle Universal work.
I've talked about the morally correct products and why they cost more in China.
We will be at Universal on the 1st of December and I'll know one way or the other if we will be continuing with Universal and JP.
Our license is very cut and dry, if you have a license for a specific region and you knowingly sell outside that region you have violated your contract.
If I file my US rights with US customs and Universal authorizes confiscation at it's borders, I haven't stolen anything. The licensee that sold you your product violated their contract.
And yes we absolutely have the right to know all licensees that are wanting to produce any product that may interfere with our license. We are actually going to Universal in two weeks to see the entire program and what we feel violates our contract.
Personally I don't think the JP market is large enough to support multiple licensees in the high end arena. I'm not trying to shut anyone out, but we've paid a lot of money for the license we have and we'll need to consider if it's worth such an high guarantee moving forward. We also took a huge risk and acquired the JP license a month before Jurassic World was released and we took a huge risk, well that paid off.
My prices are exuberant=Universal approved factory, the gold standard in the industry. I can assure you that any company entering the Jurassic arena is going to have a hard time producing product since high end factories that are Universal approved are far and few between. Now with Prop 65 passing in CA, the prices will only rise. If Universal is indeed going to require re-audits of the factory in August 2018, that may be enough for us to get as much in production before that date and have a year after to sell off and deliver.
The real problem started when Dreamworks merged with Universal and we've been through four licensing teams in the last year alone.
Amblin and the producers want us to keep producing product and we probably will, just not with as many zeroes on the guarantee.
So that means that other licensees will be able to make JP products and if they move fast, a few could be released in 2018.
We would finish the products we have on pre-order and a few that we have prototyped and do more for TG and GS.
I'm actually fine with other people making JP, but if I'm told by Universal I am buying exclusive rights and I hear that other companies are acquiring licenses, I have the right to feel the way I do and the right to protect what we were promised.
Paul