GoBots is a line of transforming robot toys produced by Tonka from 1983 to 1987, similar to Hasbro 's Transformers .
128-572: Although initially a separate and competing line of toys, Tonka's Gobots became the intellectual property of Hasbro after their buyout of Tonka in 1991. Subsequently, the universe depicted in the animated series Challenge of the GoBots and follow-up film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords was established as an alternate universe within the Transformers multiverse . While Hasbro now owns
256-499: A "bias" by confusing these monopolies with ownership of limited physical things, likening them to "property rights". Stallman advocates referring to copyrights, patents and trademarks in the singular and warns against abstracting disparate laws into a collective term. He argues that, "to avoid spreading unnecessary bias and confusion, it is best to adopt a firm policy not to speak or even think in terms of 'intellectual property'." Similarly, economists Boldrin and Levine prefer to use
384-838: A New York City real estate investor, for $ 75 million plus the assumption of certain liabilities later thought to be $ 40 million. Bernstein reincorporated the firm as the Western Publishing Group; Western Publishing Co., now a subsidiary, continued to be based in Racine. Bernstein oversaw the introduction of eight videocassettes that featured Golden Books characters in 1985. A total of 2.5 million were shipped. Western developed and produced games under license for Tonka and Hasbro , and developed storybooks containing company logos as promotional items; Bernstein referred to this as "sponsored publishing". In 1986, Penn Corporation, which produced party paper and advertising specialities,
512-453: A breach of civil law or criminal law, depending on the type of intellectual property involved, jurisdiction, and the nature of the action. As of 2011, trade in counterfeit copyrighted and trademarked works was a $ 600 billion industry worldwide and accounted for 5–7% of global trade. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine , IP has been a consideration in punishment of
640-612: A different continuity than the cartoon. This was written by Tom Tully , and ran in the second volume of Eagle from November 1984 to July 1985. After Fleetway discontinued their licence agreement, the property was leased to World Distributors , who produced annuals following the cartoon continuity in 1986 and 1987. A Gobots video game was released in 1986 by Ariolasoft for the Commodore 64 , Amstrad CPC , and ZX Spectrum computer formats. Gobots software for other computers, home video game systems or coin-operated arcade game systems
768-532: A larger offset press and added electrotyping and engraving departments. Wadewitz was approached by the Hamming-Whitman Publishing Company of Chicago to print its line of children's books. Unable to pay its bills, Hamming-Whitman left Western with thousands of books. As a result, Western acquired Hamming-Whitman on February 9, 1916, and formed a subsidiary corporation, Whitman Publishing Company . It employed two salesmen and, in
896-654: A leader in craft kits and a manufacturer of laboratory science sets for children based in Chicago, for 100,000 shares of common stock in 1968. In 1970, Western's sales reached $ 171.5 million but net profit fell to $ 3.9 million caused by the acquisition of a computerized typesetting facility and an eleven-week strike. As a result, the Hannibal plant was closed and the number of employees was reduced by 1,500 in mid-1974. Profits rose that year to $ 10.1 million; sales topped $ 215 million. In 1971, Western entered into an agreement with
1024-670: A limited period of time. Supporters argue that because IP laws allow people to protect their original ideas and prevent unauthorized copying, creators derive greater individual economic benefit from the information and intellectual goods they create, and thus have more economic incentives to create them in the first place. Advocates of IP believe that these economic incentives and legal protections stimulate innovation and contribute to technological progress of certain kinds. The intangible nature of intellectual property presents difficulties when compared with traditional property like land or goods. Unlike traditional property, intellectual property
1152-402: A lower price. Balancing rights so that they are strong enough to encourage the creation of information and intellectual goods but not so strong that they prevent their wide use is the primary focus of modern intellectual property law. By exchanging limited exclusive rights for disclosure of inventions and creative works, society and the patentee/copyright owner mutually benefit, and an incentive
1280-567: A lower price. Balancing rights so that they are strong enough to encourage the creation of intellectual goods but not so strong that they prevent the goods' wide use is the primary focus of modern intellectual property law. The Venetian Patent Statute of 19 March 1474, established by the Republic of Venice , is usually considered to be the earliest codified patent system in the world. It states that patents might be granted for "any new and ingenious device, not previously made", provided it
1408-478: A man has a natural and absolute right—and if a natural and absolute, then necessarily a perpetual, right—of property, in the ideas, of which he is the discoverer or creator; that his right of property, in ideas, is intrinsically the same as, and stands on identically the same grounds with, his right of property in material things; that no distinction, of principle, exists between the two cases". Writer Ayn Rand argued in her book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal that
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#17327804724231536-474: A million copies, and more than 400 of the 1,000-plus Golden Book titles were in print in thirteen languages. The 16-volume Golden Book Encyclopedia , published in 1960, enjoyed sales of 60 million copies in two years, while sales of Golden Press books reached almost $ 39 million in 1960. In the same year, the name Western Publishing Company was adopted and common stock was issued with some eighty percent owned by management or employees. At this point Western had
1664-666: A mixture of generic and specific contemporary machines, plus a handful of Second World War fighter aircraft, and a number of futuristic designs. This unnamed assortment, usually referred to as "Regular" Gobots, was used throughout the four years Gobots were produced and was later supplemented by figures from the Machine Robo Devil Invaders sub-line, plus some aborted Machine Robo figures and some commissioned from Bandai by Tonka. Larger figures, averaging around 12–15 cm (4.7–5.9 in) tall in robot mode, were released as Super Gobots. Some of these were drawn from
1792-516: A paradigm shift". Indeed, up until the early 2000s, the global IP regime used to be dominated by high standards of protection characteristic of IP laws from Europe or the United States, with a vision that uniform application of these standards over every country and to several fields with little consideration over social, cultural or environmental values or of the national level of economic development. Morin argues that "the emerging discourse of
1920-421: A partnership with Dell Comics , which also handled the distribution and financing of the comic books. In 1962, Western ended this partnership and published comics itself, establishing the imprint Gold Key Comics . As Murphy explained the split: With regard to a Western-Dell separation, this was by mutual agreement so that each company would be free to explore the potential business in the comics market without
2048-438: A patent for five, ten or fifteen years." In Europe, French author A. Nion mentioned propriété intellectuelle in his Droits civils des auteurs, artistes et inventeurs , published in 1846. Until recently, the purpose of intellectual property law was to give as little protection as possible in order to encourage innovation . Historically, therefore, legal protection was granted only when necessary to encourage invention, and it
2176-402: A popular Western board game introduced in 1985. Sales fell from $ 118 million to $ 42 million. In fiscal 1991 (ending January 31, 1991) sales had declined to $ 491 million with earnings of only $ 8 million. By late 1991, Western's share price had dropped to $ 9 from a high of $ 28. In 1992, Western celebrated the 50th anniversary of the introduction of Little Golden Books publishing a boxed set of
2304-543: A printer at the Racine Journal Company. At the end of its first year sales were $ 5,000 and the company increased its staff of four to handle a growing number of commercial jobs. It installed a cylinder press , two smaller presses, and an automatic power cutter. In 1910, the company changed its name to Western Printing and Lithographing Company after the purchase of its first lithographic press . By 1914, sales were more than $ 127,000. The company installed
2432-466: A publisher of Catholic books, religious greeting cards, and gift wrap, was purchased in the early 1950s. In 1955, a new specialty printing plant was built in Hannibal, Missouri . Western achieved sales of $ 63 million in 1957, the year of its 50th anniversary. In the same year the company acquired Kable Printing Company, a large rotogravure magazine printer. With partners Dell and Simon & Schuster,
2560-574: A short comic strip, based on the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon continuity, as well as features on real-life robots , quiz pages and the like. It ran quarterly from winter 1986 to winter 1987, managing five issues. Unlike the Transformers comics, it was aimed at a very young readership. In the UK , a Robo Machines comic strip was produced, using many of the characters from the Gobot line, but following
2688-410: A two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft. Generally speaking, it is what makes a product look appealing, and as such, it increases the commercial value of goods. Plant breeders' rights or plant variety rights are the rights to commercially use a new variety of a plant . The variety must, amongst others, be novel and distinct and for registration
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#17327804724232816-636: A wide variety of games, playing cards, crayons, and gift wrap. Western also had a Canadian subsidiary (established in 1959) and a French company (established in 1960). In 1967, the Justice Department charged Golden Press and seventeen other publishers with illegally fixing prices of library editions of children's books. Each agreed to the terms of a consent judgment forbidding them from submitting rigged bids or conspiring with wholesalers to fix prices of sales to schools, libraries, or government agencies. Western purchased Skil-Craft Playthings, Inc.,
2944-432: Is "indivisible", since an unlimited number of people can in theory "consume" an intellectual good without its being depleted. Additionally, investments in intellectual goods suffer from appropriation problems: Landowners can surround their land with a robust fence and hire armed guards to protect it, but producers of information or literature can usually do little to stop their first buyer from replicating it and selling it at
3072-549: Is a form of right granted by the government to an inventor or their successor-in-title, giving the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem, which may be a product or a process, and generally has to fulfill three main requirements: it has to be new , not obvious and there needs to be an industrial applicability . To enrich
3200-601: Is a trade secret for Coca-Cola .) The main purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods for consumers. To achieve this, the law gives people and businesses property rights to the information and intellectual goods they create, usually for a limited period of time. Because they can then profit from them, this gives economic incentive for their creation. The intangible nature of intellectual property presents difficulties when compared with traditional property like land or goods. Unlike traditional property, intellectual property
3328-416: Is an extension of an individual. Utilitarians believe that intellectual property stimulates social progress and pushes people to further innovation. Lockeans argue that intellectual property is justified based on deservedness and hard work. Various moral justifications for private property can be used to argue in favor of the morality of intellectual property, such as: Lysander Spooner (1855) argues "that
3456-668: Is considered similarly high in other developed nations, such as those in the European Union. In the UK, IP has become a recognised asset class for use in pension-led funding and other types of business finance. However, in 2013, the UK Intellectual Property Office stated: "There are millions of intangible business assets whose value is either not being leveraged at all, or only being leveraged inadvertently". An October 2023 study released by Americans for
3584-460: Is created for inventors and authors to create and disclose their work. Some commentators have noted that the objective of intellectual property legislators and those who support its implementation appears to be "absolute protection". "If some intellectual property is desirable because it encourages innovation, they reason, more is better. The thinking is that creators will not have sufficient incentive to invent unless they are legally entitled to capture
3712-635: Is different from violations of other intellectual property laws, since by definition trade secrets are secret, while patents and registered copyrights and trademarks are publicly available. In the United States, trade secrets are protected under state law, and states have nearly universally adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act . The United States also has federal law in the form of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 ( 18 U.S.C. §§ 1831 – 1839 ), which makes
3840-432: Is indivisible—an unlimited number of people can "consume" an intellectual good without it being depleted. Additionally, investments in intellectual goods suffer from problems of appropriation—while a landowner can surround their land with a robust fence and hire armed guards to protect it, a producer of information or an intellectual good can usually do very little to stop their first buyer from replicating it and selling it at
3968-678: Is the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The TRIPS Agreement sets minimum international standards for IP which every member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) must comply with. A member's non-compliance with the TRIPS Agreement may be grounds for suit under the WTO's Dispute Settlement Mechanism . Bilateral and multi-lateral agreements often establish IP requirements above
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4096-448: Is to promote, as a deliberate act of Government policy, creativity and the dissemination and application of its results and to encourage fair trading which would contribute to economic and social development. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) states that "effective enforcement of intellectual property rights is critical to sustaining economic growth across all industries and globally". Economists estimate that two-thirds of
4224-414: Is unknown at this time. It was announced that Hasbro has applied for a new Go-Bots trademark (this is not a renewal) under "distribution of motion pictures, ongoing television programs" and "Toys, games and playthings, namely, toy vehicles and accessories for use therewith. In October 2018, IDW began publishing a Go-Bots mini series written and illustrated by Tom Scioli . Unlike Transformers, Gobots
4352-683: The Children's Television Workshop to produce Golden Books featuring the Muppets of Sesame Street . In 1974, Dell Publishing Company signed a ten-year printing contract with Western worth more than $ 50 million. That same year construction began on a distribution and game-and-puzzle assembly center in Fayetteville, North Carolina . Direct marketing accounted for twenty-five percent of Western's consumer product sales by 1976. This represented seventy percent of total sales. Driven by products such as
4480-548: The Gold Key Comics and Dell Comics catalogs, while Random House gained Golden Books' book publishing properties. The H. E. Harris stamp and coin company bought Whitman Coin Products from St. Martin's Press in 2003 and renamed it Whitman Publishing. On July 23, 2012, Classic Media was acquired by DreamWorks Animation for $ 155 million and renamed DreamWorks Classics . On July 1, 2013, Random House merged with
4608-588: The Great Depression between 1929 and 1933, Western introduced new products: The Whitman jigsaw puzzle became very popular during this period as did a new series of books called Big Little Books . Brought out in 1932, the 10-cent Big Little Books became very popular with people looking for inexpensive entertainment. The first Big Little Book was The Adventures of Dick Tracy. Western won exclusive book rights to all Walt Disney licensed characters in 1933, and in 1934 established an eastern printing plant at
4736-693: The Penguin Group , forming a new company called Penguin Random House . In April 2016, the acquisition of DreamWorks Animation (owner of DreamWorks Classics) by NBCUniversal was announced. Historian Michael Barrier has lamented the apparent loss of Western's business records for future use by researchers. With licenses for characters from Walt Disney Productions , Warner Bros. , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Edgar Rice Burroughs and Walter Lantz Studio , Western produced comics based on these characters, as well as original works. The editorial staff at
4864-583: The fair use and fair dealing doctrine. Trademark infringement occurs when one party uses a trademark that is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services of the other party. In many countries, a trademark receives protection without registration, but registering a trademark provides legal advantages for enforcement. Infringement can be addressed by civil litigation and, in several jurisdictions, under criminal law. Trade secret misappropriation
4992-514: The 1760s and 1770s over the extent to which authors and publishers of works also had rights deriving from the common law of property ( Millar v Taylor (1769), Hinton v Donaldson (1773), Donaldson v Becket (1774)). The first known use of the term intellectual property dates to this time, when a piece published in the Monthly Review in 1769 used the phrase. The first clear example of modern usage goes back as early as 1808, when it
5120-519: The 17th and 18th centuries. The term "intellectual property" began to be used in the 19th century, though it was not until the late 20th century that intellectual property became commonplace in most of the world's legal systems . Supporters of intellectual property laws often describe their main purpose as encouraging the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods. To achieve this, the law gives people and businesses property rights to certain information and intellectual goods they create, usually for
5248-498: The 1920s and 1930s, Western published a wide range of children's books (puzzle books, coloring books, Tell-a-Tale books, Big Little Books ), mostly under the Golden Books and Whitman Publishing brand names. The Little Golden Books was a very popular series. Lucille Ogle helped develop the format for these low-priced books, which told simple stories and were among the first children's books with full-color illustrations. The first
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5376-810: The 2018 film Bumblebee (film) asks the protagonist Charlie Watson if the Transformers are like the fictional toy line Gobots in a deleted scene on the Blu-Ray. The film is set in 1987. Intellectual property This is an accepted version of this page Intellectual property ( IP ) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents , copyrights , trademarks , and trade secrets . The modern concept of intellectual property developed in England in
5504-559: The 30-year-old son of German immigrants , worked at the West Side Printing Company in Racine, Wisconsin . When the owner of that company was unable to pay Wadewitz his wages, Wadewitz took the opportunity in 1907 to purchase the company for $ 2,504, with some of the funds provided by his brother Albert. Knowing that the company needed staff with more knowledge of the business than he had, Wadewitz hired Roy A. Spencer,
5632-513: The 6 molds produced, 15 Go-Bot characters were released, including the 1995 BotCon convention exclusive figure, Nightracer (a recoloring of Go-Bot Bumblebee). Subsequent uses of these molds were renamed Spy Changers. Gearhead was used to demonstrate the Hasbro Go-Bots line at Toy Fair 1995. They were described by the pitch-man as " The all-new, most mind-blowing, laser-slashing, robot-bashing product line ever! " Guillermo Gutierrez in
5760-613: The Arts (AFTA) found that "nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences generated $ 151.7 billion in economic activity—$ 73.3 billion in spending by the organizations, which leveraged an additional $ 78.4 billion in event-related spending by their audiences." This spending supported 2.6 million jobs and generated $ 29.1 billion in local, state and federal tax revenue." 224,000 audience members and over 16,000 organizations in all 50 states and Puerto Rico were surveyed over an 18-month period to collect
5888-615: The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Program, a monthly mailing of recipe cards to millions of customers, sales grew to $ 237.3 million in 1976 with net income of $ 10.8 million. In 1979, Western ceased to be an independent company when Mattel Inc. purchased the company for $ 120.8 million in a cash/stock deal. By the late 1970s, Western was one of the largest commercial printers in the United States. It had four manufacturing plants and two distribution centers between Kansas and Maryland. It boasted of installing some of
6016-452: The EU, and which has not entered into force, requires that its parties add criminal penalties, including incarceration and fines, for copyright and trademark infringement, and obligated the parties to actively police for infringement. There are limitations and exceptions to copyright , allowing limited use of copyrighted works, which does not constitute infringement. Examples of such doctrines are
6144-455: The Fallen figures Deadlift (based on Spoons) and Reverb (based on Dart). Also, Botcon 2007 Bugbite, an off-white repaint of Classics Bumblebee, was released as the second Bug Bite toy in Transformers. The first Bug Bite was a Japanese-exclusive white repaint of Generation 1 Bumblebee which retained Bug Bites VW Beetle vehicle mode. The color change to white was due to Bumblebee and Bug Bite sharing
6272-827: The Machine Robo Scale Robo DX line, some from the MR Big Machine Robo line (these included larger versions of Leader-1 , the Guardian leader, and Cy-Kill, the Renegade leader) and some designs not released in Japan. The line also included two gestalt -style figures, the car-based Puzzler and monster-based Monsterous . Several other ranges were drawn from existing Bandai figures (such as the Secret Riders ). Tonka did design some toys for
6400-512: The US), supplementary protection certificates for pharmaceutical products (after expiry of a patent protecting them), and database rights (in European law ). The term "industrial property" is sometimes used to refer to a large subset of intellectual property rights including patents, trademarks, industrial designs, utility models, service marks, trade names, and geographical indications. A patent
6528-467: The United States) but several jurisdictions incorporate infringement in criminal law also (for example, Argentina, China, France, Japan, Russia, South Korea). Copyright infringement is reproducing, distributing, displaying or performing a work , or to make derivative works , without permission from the copyright holder, which is typically a publisher or other business representing or assigned by
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#17327804724236656-552: The Walton Boys, Power Boys , Brains Benton , and Troy Nesbit mysteries. The series, published from the 1950s to the 1970s, also included a number of titles licensed from popular movies and television shows: Lassie , The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin , many television Westerns , and Walt Disney 's Spin and Marty and Annette (from the serial featuring Annette Funicello that aired on The Mickey Mouse Club . The company
6784-525: The West Coast office over the years included: Eleanor Packer, Alice Cobb, Chase Craig , Zetta Devoe, Del Connell and Bill Spicer . Bernie Zuber was an editorial artist, a position similar to that of a production artist , from 1957 until 1982. Oskar Lebeck , Matt Murphy and Wally Green are among those who oversaw the East Coast office. From 1938 to 1962, Western's properties were published under
6912-583: The Western Playing Card Company after purchasing the Sheffer Playing Card Company. In 1929, Western purchased a Chicago stationery and greeting card manufacturer, Stationer's Engraving Company. Another subsidiary was K.K. Publications, named after Kay Kamen , manager of character merchandising at Walt Disney Studios from 1933 to 1949. K.K. Publications became defunct during the mid/late 1960s. During
7040-417: The aggressor through trade sanctions, has been proposed as a method to prevent future wars of aggression involving nuclear weapons , and has caused concern about stifling innovation by keeping patent information secret. Patent infringement typically is caused by using or selling a patented invention without permission from the patent holder, i.e. from the patent owner. The scope of the patented invention or
7168-514: The annual kite safety title (which featured an array of licensed characters) published over a span of 32 years for power utility companies. Both series had print runs in the hundreds of thousands. In the 1990s, the Western/Gold Key characters Magnus , Turok and Dr. Solar were licensed to Valiant Comics , who published modified versions of the characters to great success. However, by the mid-1990s, Valiant's sales had slumped due to
7296-428: The body of knowledge and to stimulate innovation, it is an obligation for patent owners to disclose valuable information about their inventions to the public. A copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Copyright may apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms, or "works". Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only
7424-596: The books could be sold for 25 cents each. In September 1942, the first 12 titles were printed and released to stores in October. Three editions totaling 1.5 million books sold out within five months of publication in 1942. During World War II , Western had a contract with the U.S. Army Map Service to produce maps for soldiers in the field and it also manufactured books and playing cards which were sent overseas. In 1945, Western acquired another major printing plant, Wolff Printing Company of St. Louis. Guild Press, Inc.,
7552-510: The catalog of United Productions of America (UPA) and book publisher Random House in a bankruptcy auction for the $ 84.4 million on August 16, 2001. In turn, Random House, and Classic Media gained ownership of Golden Books' entertainment catalog (including the family entertainment catalog of Broadway Video which includes the pre-1974 library of Rankin/Bass Productions and the library of Total Television ) as well as production, licensing and merchandising rights for Golden Books' characters and
7680-658: The colors yellow and black in their original competing releases. The name Leader-1 was reused for Transformers Armada Megatron's mini-con in 2002. While Hasbro has used current toy technology to update their G1 Transformer characters over the years, it is unlikely that Gobots will receive similar treatment, as the molds—and thus, the original character designs—belong to Bandai . In 1995, a line of Transformers called Go-Bots (small, Matchbox-sized car Transformers which had racing axles) were released, including Bumblebee , Double Clutch , High Beam , Ironhide, Megatron , Mirage , Optimus Prime , Soundwave , Sideswipe , and Frenzy. Of
7808-431: The company but retained his stock. It sold the adult books ( Golden Guide ) to St. Martin's Press in 1999. In June 2001, DIC Entertainment announced they would purchase Golden Books Family Entertainment for $ 170 Million and send them out of bankruptcy. However, DIC would pass off the purchase due to high costs and instead Golden Books Family Entertainment was eventually acquired jointly by Classic Media , owner of
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#17327804724237936-475: The company decided ultimately to run the departments itself. Bernstein wanted to sell Western's products in discount stores and supermarket and drugstore chains and spent $ 20 million to do so. The school book club, started in 1990, also lost money. The net effect was a $ 55.8 million loss on sales of $ 613.5 million for fiscal 1994 (ending January 1994). Three Golden Books Showcase Store locations were opened, which featured only Western Publishing products. The first
8064-575: The company had been acquired by Bernstein from Mattel in 1984. At this point he owned or controlled nearly 20 percent of the common stock, the Gabelli Group held about 17 percent, and Prudential Insurance Company of America owned 8.6 percent. Long-term debt was $ 249.8 million. By mid-1996, under the supervision of ex-Simon & Schuster executive Richard E. Snyder , it was renamed Golden Books Family Entertainment and focused on publishing children's books. Bernstein resigned all his positions at
8192-802: The company sponsored the Story Book Shop on Main Street, U.S.A. , in Disneyland which opened on July 17, 1955, and closed April 1, 1995. In addition it was one of the initial investors in the park by virtue of being a part-owner of Disneyland, Inc. Western and Pocket Books , Inc. formed Golden Press, Inc. at the end of 1958 following their joint purchase of all Golden Book properties from Simon and Schuster. The arrangement called for Western to continue to create and manufacture Golden Books which Pocket Books would promote, sell, and distribute. By 1959, over 150 Little Golden Book titles had sold at least
8320-478: The company's revenue. The company's half-share in Golden Press, Inc. was a problem. It lost money in 1961 and 1962, and, in 1963, its sales sagged from $ 32.9 million the previous year to $ 22.5 million. Western bought Pocket Books' half-share in Golden Press in 1964 with 276,750 shares of its common stock valued at nearly $ 7.4 million. Odyssey took over the sales and distribution of adult Golden Books; Western did
8448-492: The company, Bernstein began a major restructuring of Western. Hasbro Inc. purchased the games and puzzles division for $ 105 million and the Fayetteville distribution center which handled them was put up for sale. Troll purchased the school book club division for $ 4.3 million. Ritepoint and Adtrend, parts of Penn Corporation's advertising specialty division, were sold as was its direct-marketing continuity-club business. Staff
8576-644: The company. Dick Simon , then head of Simon & Schuster, mentioned to Duplaix that he was interested in any new ideas for children's books. Duplaix had the idea to produce a colorful, more durable and affordable children's book than those being published at that time which sold for $ 2 to $ 3. With the help of Lucile Ogle, also working at the Guild, Duplaix contacted Albert Leventhal, a vice president and sales manager at Simon & Schuster, and Leon Shimkin , also at Simon & Schuster, with his idea. The group decided to publish twelve titles for simultaneous release in what
8704-590: The controversy, the agreement has extensively incorporated intellectual property rights into the global trading system for the first time in 1995, and has prevailed as the most comprehensive agreement reached by the world. Intellectual property rights include patents , copyright , industrial design rights , trademarks , plant variety rights , trade dress , geographical indications , and in some jurisdictions trade secrets . There are also more specialized or derived varieties of sui generis exclusive rights, such as circuit design rights (called mask work rights in
8832-444: The data. The WIPO treaty and several related international agreements underline that the protection of intellectual property rights is essential to maintaining economic growth. The WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook gives two reasons for intellectual property laws: One is to give statutory expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations and the rights of the public in access to those creations. The second
8960-509: The decade's speculative boom collapsing, and the company ceased publishing in 1999. In 2004, Dark Horse Comics began reprinting some of Western's original comic book properties, which by then were owned by Random House , along with Tarzan from the Jesse Marsh era. In 2009, the company announced plans to launch new versions of various Gold Key characters, with former Valiant editor-in-chief Jim Shooter as head writer. Beginning in
9088-491: The design of a building) that signify the source of the product to consumers. A trade secret is a formula , practice, process, design , instrument, pattern , or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors and customers. There is no formal government protection granted; each business must take measures to guard its own trade secrets (e.g., Formula of its soft drinks
9216-400: The distinction of being the largest creator and publisher of children's books, the largest producer/distributor of children's games made from paper or paper products, and the largest creator/producer of comic books. Western had operated at a profit every year since 1907, paid a dividend every year since 1934, and seen net sales increase from $ 40.5 million in 1950 to $ 123.8 million in 1960. During
9344-520: The end of Elizabeth's reign, however, a patent represents a legal right obtained by an inventor providing for exclusive control over the production and sale of his mechanical or scientific invention. demonstrating the evolution of patents from royal prerogative to common-law doctrine. The term can be found used in an October 1845 Massachusetts Circuit Court ruling in the patent case Davoll et al. v. Brown , in which Justice Charles L. Woodbury wrote that "only in this way can we protect intellectual property,
9472-611: The end of the Challenge of the Gobots television series, the Gobots co-starred with the Rock Lords in an animated feature film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords , again produced by Hanna-Barbera. In 1984, two Gobot children's books were published by Golden Books, an imprint of Western Publishing . The books, titled War of the Gobots and Gobots on Earth , were written by Robin Snyder and illustrated by Steve Ditko , and chronicled
9600-414: The evaluation of propagating material of the variety is considered. A trademark is a recognizable sign , design or expression that distinguishes a particular trader's products or services from similar products or services of other traders. Trade dress is a legal term of art that generally refers to characteristics of the visual and aesthetic appearance of a product or its packaging (or even
9728-510: The exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. ' " "Some commentators, such as David Levine and Michele Boldrin , dispute this justification. In 2013, the United States Patent and Trademark Office approximated that the worth of intellectual property to the U.S. economy is more than US$ 5 trillion and creates employment for an estimated 18 million American people. The value of intellectual property
9856-471: The extent of protection is defined in the claims of the granted patent. There is safe harbor in many jurisdictions to use a patented invention for research. This safe harbor does not exist in the US unless the research is done for purely philosophical purposes, or to gather data to prepare an application for regulatory approval of a drug. In general, patent infringement cases are handled under civil law (e.g., in
9984-494: The fictional side of the property (character names, bios, storyline), the actual toys and their likenesses were only licensed from Bandai in the 1980s, were not covered by the Tonka acquisition, and are not available for Hasbro use. The GoBot toy line was based on figures produced by Popy of Japan (the now-defunct character division of Bandai ), named Machine Robo . In another similarity to Transformers , Tonka decided to make
10112-427: The figures sentient robots, rather than human-piloted mecha as they had been in Japan, and divided them into two factions – the good Guardians and evil Renegades (although early figures were simply described as ‘Friendly’ or ‘Enemy’ on the packaging). The figures were all given individual names, in contrast to the simple designations they received in Japan. Introduced in 1983 by Tonka Inc., the GoBots toys were part of
10240-689: The first heatset web offset printing presses in the US. As well, Western had the largest offset, sheet-fed presses, some exceeding 78 inches wide, printing in five colors, and one of the largest bindery operations in the United States. Among other things, it printed mass-market paperback books under contract, and was the primary manufacturer and distributor of the board game Trivial Pursuit , as well as other tabletop games. It developed and printed specialty cookbooks, premiums, and material for many Fortune 500 clients. At one time, Western printed almost everything from "business cards to billboards", and employed over 2500 full-time employees. The year 1980 saw
10368-468: The first year, grossed more than $ 43,500 liquidating the remaining Hamming-Whitman books. In 1916, Sam Lowe joined Western. He convinced Western and Whitman to publish a 10-cent children's book in 1918 and convinced retailers that children's books could be sold year-round. Western introduced boxed games and jigsaw puzzles in 1923 after purchasing a 38-inch by 52-inch Potter offset press. By 1925, sales exceeded $ 1 million. Western added another subsidiary,
10496-429: The form or manner in which they are expressed. An industrial design right (sometimes called "design right" or design patent ) protects the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three-dimensional form containing aesthetic value. An industrial design can be
10624-481: The former Fiat factory site in Poughkeepsie , New York. The printing plant allowed a close relationship to develop with the publishers Dell Publishing Company and Simon & Schuster , Inc. From 1938 to 1962 Dell Publishing and Western produced color comic books featuring many of Western's licensed characters. In 1938, the first joint effort between Western and Simon & Schuster, A Children's History,
10752-751: The full social value of their inventions". This absolute protection or full value view treats intellectual property as another type of "real" property, typically adopting its law and rhetoric. Other recent developments in intellectual property law, such as the America Invents Act , stress international harmonization. Recently there has also been much debate over the desirability of using intellectual property rights to protect cultural heritage, including intangible ones, as well as over risks of commodification derived from this possibility. The issue still remains open in legal scholarship. These exclusive rights allow intellectual property owners to benefit from
10880-688: The global IP regime advocates for greater policy flexibility and greater access to knowledge, especially for developing countries." Indeed, with the Development Agenda adopted by WIPO in 2007, a set of 45 recommendations to adjust WIPO's activities to the specific needs of developing countries and aim to reduce distortions especially on issues such as patients' access to medicines, Internet users' access to information, farmers' access to seeds, programmers' access to source codes or students' access to scientific articles. However, this paradigm shift has not yet manifested itself in concrete legal reforms at
11008-490: The imprint Artists and Writers Guild Books and sold in general book and toy stores. Western's net sales recovered in fiscal 1992 to $ 552.4 million with net income of $ 13.7 million, and $ 649.1 million with $ 17.5 million net income in 1993. In 1993, Western decided to close the advertising specialty division and took a $ 21.8 million writedown . A further $ 10 million was spent setting up and running bookstores in Toys "R" Us stores;
11136-535: The international level. Similarly, it is based on these background that the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement requires members of the WTO to set minimum standards of legal protection, but its objective to have a "one-fits-all" protection law on Intellectual Property has been viewed with controversies regarding differences in the development level of countries. Despite
11264-460: The labors of the mind, productions and interests are as much a man's own ... as the wheat he cultivates, or the flocks he rears." The statement that "discoveries are ... property" goes back earlier. Section 1 of the French law of 1791 stated, "All new discoveries are the property of the author; to assure the inventor the property and temporary enjoyment of his discovery, there shall be delivered to him
11392-536: The late 1970s, after which newsstand distribution was discontinued in favor of distribution to toy stores under the "Whitman Comics" banner. The company stopped publishing comics in 1984, and all of its licenses have since gone to other publishers. Many of these new licensees have included among their offerings reprints of stories originally published by Western. Prior to 1962, in addition to comics published through Dell, Western published some comics under its own name, particularly giveaways such as March of Comics and
11520-830: The launch of the Sesame Street Book Club and the relocation of the Skil-Craft manufacturing plant from Chicago to Fayetteville. Sales climbed to $ 278 million in 1981. Mattel's investment in Western soon soured. In fiscal 1983 (ending January 31, 1983) Western had sales of $ 246 million with an operating loss of $ 2.4 million after a $ 7.5 million charge relating to closing the Poughkeepsie printing plant. Mattel had its own financial issues and, strapped for cash, sold Western in December 1983 to Richard A. Bernstein,
11648-790: The line, including the Guardian Command Center and Renegade Thruster playsets, and the motorized Renegade Zod. In addition to these, two versions of the Power Warrior were made for both the Guardians and the Renegades, using molds from the Machine Robo line and recolored. The Nemesis Power Warrior used a tank for the center body and was released only in Japan. A large playset called the Gobotron Fortress
11776-468: The name was changed to Walt Disney's Magazine and the focus shifted to contemporary Disney movie and television productions. In a similar vein, they printed Gulf Oil 's Wonderful World of Disney premium (1969-1970) which was edited by Disney's George Sherman . During the 1960s, Western published The Golden Magazine for Boys and Girls with Cracky the Parrot as its mascot. For many years Golden Press
11904-475: The origins of the Gobots. The Gobots were also featured in the 1986 book Collision Course Comet - Robo Machine Featuring The Challenge Of The Gobots and the 1985 book The Wagner Sirens-Robo Machine Featuring The Challenge Of The Gobots, both of which were published by Egmont Books . The closest thing to a Gobot comic book was the Gobots Magazine , produced by Telepictures Publishing. This included
12032-453: The principle of Hasagat Ge'vul (unfair encroachment) was used to justify limited-term publisher (but not author) copyright in the 16th century. In 500 BCE, the government of the Greek state of Sybaris offered one year's patent "to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury". According to Jean-Frédéric Morin, "the global intellectual property regime is currently in the midst of
12160-673: The property they have created, providing a financial incentive for the creation of an investment in intellectual property, and, in case of patents, pay associated research and development costs. In the United States Article ;I Section 8 Clause 8 of the Constitution, commonly called the Patent and Copyright Clause, reads; "The Congress shall have power 'To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors
12288-583: The protection of intellectual property is essentially a moral issue. The belief is that the human mind itself is the source of wealth and survival and that all property at its base is intellectual property. To violate intellectual property is therefore no different morally than violating other property rights which compromises the very processes of survival and therefore constitutes an immoral act. Violation of intellectual property rights, called "infringement" with respect to patents, copyright, and trademarks, and "misappropriation" with respect to trade secrets, may be
12416-656: The requirements of the TRIPS Agreement. Criticism of the term intellectual property ranges from discussing its vagueness and abstract overreach to direct contention to the semantic validity of using words like property and rights in fashions that contradict practice and law. Many detractors think this term specially serves the doctrinal agenda of parties opposing reform in the public interest or otherwise abusing related legislations, and that it disallows intelligent discussion about specific and often unrelated aspects of copyright, patents, trademarks, etc. Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman argues that, although
12544-597: The robot "sensation" that swept the nation for a short time. The line sold well initially but was overtaken by Transformers. 1987 was the final year in which new Gobots were released. In 1991, Hasbro acquired the GoBots range from Tonka Inc. Tonka released the first batch of figures to stores in 1983, one year prior to the Transformers . The bulk of the Gobot line was taken from the Machine Robo "600 Series" line of figures, which were around 5–8 cm (2.0–3.1 in)high on average. The robot figures transformed into
12672-915: The same for children's titles. Western Printing & Lithographing, the largest company unit, accounted for about 40 percent of sales in 1965. Artists & Writers Press, Inc., one of fourteen active subsidiaries, created books for publishers and commercial customers including Golden Books, Betty Crocker cookbooks, the Arts of Mankind series for Golden Press, and the four-volume Harper Encyclopedia of Science for Harper & Row. Capitol Publishing, purchased in 1961, originated and produced educational materials and games for children, as well as toys and novelty products. The Kable Printing division produced over 125,000 monthly magazines, other periodicals, and catalogs. The Watkins-Strathmore Co., acquired in 1957, produced children's books and games, including Magic Slate . Meanwhile, Whitman published nearly every type of juvenile and adolescent books, numismatic books, coin cards,
12800-581: The same period, net profit had increased from $ 3.1 million to $ 7.4 million. In 1961, Western opened another printing plant, in Cambridge, Maryland , and in 1970 acquired several companies, including Odyssey Press, a high school and college textbook publisher. By 1963, 65 percent of Western's total revenues derived from juvenile literature (including games), 25 percent from commercial printing, and 10 percent from books produced for other publishers and miscellaneous activities. Whitman accounted for 35 percent of
12928-599: The schools and libraries. Offices were set up in Wayne, New Jersey, and the reinforced library books were warehoused in Wayne and distributed from that location. There were about 80 sales representatives in the United States under the general manager, Roy Spahr. From the 1940s to the 1980s, Western published several series of books for older children and young teenagers, initially under its Whitman line. Girls' mystery series included Trixie Belden , Ginny Gordon , Donna Parker , Meg Duncan and Trudy Phillips. Boys' series included
13056-399: The self-imposed restrictions which formerly required Western and Dell to work exclusively with one another. In our previous relationship, Western Publishing Co. secured the rights, created the comics, printed them and shipped them out for Dell. Dell acted as the publisher and distributor and did the billing and paid Western for its creatively manufactured products. This imprint continued until
13184-715: The strengthening of the IP system and subsequent economic growth." According to Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , "everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author". Although the relationship between intellectual property and human rights is complex, there are moral arguments for intellectual property. The arguments that justify intellectual property fall into three major categories. Personality theorists believe intellectual property
13312-462: The term intellectual property is in wide use, it should be rejected altogether, because it "systematically distorts and confuses these issues, and its use was and is promoted by those who gain from this confusion". He claims that the term "operates as a catch-all to lump together disparate laws [which] originated separately, evolved differently, cover different activities, have different rules, and raise different public policy issues" and that it creates
13440-485: The term "intellectual monopoly" as a more appropriate and clear definition of the concept, which, they argue, is very dissimilar from property rights. They further argued that "stronger patents do little or nothing to encourage innovation", mainly explained by its tendency to create market monopolies, thereby restricting further innovations and technology transfer. Western Publishing Western Publishing , also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company ,
13568-702: The term intellectual property in their new combined title, the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property . The organization subsequently relocated to Geneva in 1960 and was succeeded in 1967 with the establishment of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) by treaty as an agency of the United Nations . According to legal scholar Mark Lemley , it
13696-403: The theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. This law contains two provisions criminalizing two sorts of activity. The first, 18 U.S.C. § 1831(a) , criminalizes the theft of trade secrets to benefit foreign powers. The second, 18 U.S.C. § 1832 , criminalizes their theft for commercial or economic purposes. (The statutory penalties are different for
13824-416: The twelve original titles for $ 19.95. Special editions of all-time favorites, and new books by popular artists and illustrators of children's books were also published to mark the occasion. The Golden Little Nugget Book line was introduced and sold more than 1.9 million units in six months. Golden management decided to publish trade books for children for the first time in 1993. These titles were published under
13952-431: The two offenses.) In Commonwealth common law jurisdictions, confidentiality and trade secrets are regarded as an equitable right rather than a property right but penalties for theft are roughly the same as in the United States. The international governance of IP involves multiple overlapping institutions and forums. There is no overall rule-making body. One of the most important aspects of global IP governance
14080-542: The value of large businesses in the United States can be traced to intangible assets. "IP-intensive industries" are estimated to generate 72% more value added (price minus material cost) per employee than "non-IP-intensive industries". A joint research project of the WIPO and the United Nations University measuring the impact of IP systems on six Asian countries found "a positive correlation between
14208-449: The work's creator. It is often called "piracy". In the United States, while copyright is created the instant a work is fixed, generally the copyright holder can only get money damages if the owner registers the copyright. Enforcement of copyright is generally the responsibility of the copyright holder. The ACTA trade agreement , signed in May 2011 by the United States, Japan, Switzerland, and
14336-478: Was also shown to have existed in various articles and catalogues, but it has never been released. A spin-off line, Rock Lords , crossed over with the Gobots in the feature film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords , and was issued as a separate toy line by Tonka in 1986. † = release cancelled. Hanna-Barbera produced a cartoon series called Challenge of the GoBots to promote the toy line, which ran for 65 22-minute episodes from 1984 to 1985. In 1986, soon after
14464-476: Was also the original American publisher of The Adventures of Tintin , issuing six titles in English translation in 1959 and 1960, before discontinuing further releases because of what were considered disappointing sales. In 1937, Western, at the request of Kay Kamen (who oversaw licensing and marketing at Disney), assumed production of the newsstand version of Mickey Mouse Magazine , which, in October 1940,
14592-701: Was an American company founded in 1907 in Racine, Wisconsin , best known for publishing the Little Golden Books . Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also produced children's books and family-related entertainment products. The company had editorial offices in New York City and Los Angeles, California. Western Publishing became Golden Books Family Entertainment in 1996. Little Golden Books remains as an imprint of Penguin Random House . Golden Guides and Golden Field Guides are published by St. Martin's Press . Edward Henry Wadewitz,
14720-502: Was called the Go-Bots, and Hasbro subsidiary Playskool issued a line named Transformers: Gobots in 2002. To this date, there have been a few exclusives referencing GoBots, but they have all been recolors of other Transformer molds as opposed to new figures. Examples of this are the Transformers 2007 movie-themed Fracture (based on Crasher) and Backtrack (based on Night Ranger; unreleased, but shown in promotional materials) and Revenge of
14848-448: Was limited in time and scope. This is mainly as a result of knowledge being traditionally viewed as a public good, in order to allow its extensive dissemination and improvement. The concept's origin can potentially be traced back further. Jewish law includes several considerations whose effects are similar to those of modern intellectual property laws, though the notion of intellectual creations as property does not seem to exist—notably
14976-522: Was only at this point that the term really began to be used in the United States (which had not been a party to the Berne Convention), and it did not enter popular usage there until passage of the Bayh–Dole Act in 1980. The history of patents does not begin with inventions, but rather with royal grants by Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) for monopoly privileges. Approximately 200 years after
15104-849: Was opened in the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois , in November 1992; the second in CityWalk Center outside Universal Studios Hollywood during June 1993; and the third store was opened in Rockefeller Center in New York City during April 1994. They have all since closed. By the mid-1990s, most of its printing plants were closed and its print operations consolidated in Racine. These losses raised Western's debt to $ 250 million; its negative cash flow caused its bonds to be downgraded to junk status. Unable to sell
15232-546: Was published in 1942. Beginning as the "Whitman Famous Classics", and later renamed the "Golden Press" imprint, Western published a series of (public domain) classics, such as Little Women , Little Men , Black Beauty and Heidi . In the late 1960s, Golden Books were bound in the Goldencraft reinforced library bindings and sold to schools and libraries in the United States by a group of independent sales representatives. The library bound books were very popular with
15360-598: Was published. In the 1930s, Western formed the Artists and Writers Guild Inc., located in New York City, to develop new children's books. Western expanded to the West Coast in the early 1940s, opening an office in Beverly Hills to make it easier to do business with studios that owned the characters the company licensed. Georges Duplaix replaced Sam Lowe as head of the Artists and Writers Guild in 1940 when Lowe left
15488-413: Was publisher of Betty Crocker cookbooks. Often these were issued in a three-ring binder format so recipe pages could be removed for easy consultation while cooking. Western produced games such as Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary until Hasbro bought that division in 1994. The company published the children's science books The World of Science and The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments , while
15616-540: Was purchased for $ 108 million. Bernstein took Western public in April 1986 and made more than $ 70 million on his original $ 5 million investment; he retained twenty-one percent of the stock. The company continued to prosper. For the fiscal year ending January 31, 1989, sales were $ 551 million produced earnings of nearly $ 30 million. In 1990, sales dropped to $ 508 million and earnings fell to $ 23 million. Analysts attributed some of this decline to falling sales of Pictionary ,
15744-503: Was reduced by 28 percent. Bernstein continued the concept of developing book sections within stores and introduced 100 Just For Kids sections in Walmart locations which sold video and music along with books. Western lost $ 11.6 million on revenues of $ 303.9 million during the first three quarters of 1994. Its common stock, which had traded as high as $ 21 a share in 1993, had fallen to below $ 10 in April 1995. No dividend had been paid since
15872-498: Was released in several guises around the world. In 1991, Hasbro took over Tonka , and thus the Gobot trademarks ; the molds for the action figures remain the property of Bandai, having only been leased to Tonka, and some were reissued in 1993 for the European Robo Machines line. Since then, the trademarks have been used several times — a character called Gobots was released in 1993, a range of figures in 1995
16000-437: Was succeeded by the comic book Walt Disney's Comics and Stories . 1936-1954 Story Parade, Inc. (a Western subsidiary) published Story Parade: A Magazine for Boys and Girls with a children's literature orientation. Then in late 1955, Western initiated Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club Magazine with content produced by Disney Studio staff members. It was intended to promote The Mickey Mouse Club television series. Eventually
16128-504: Was to be called the Little Golden Books Series. Each book would have forty-two pages, twenty-eight printed in two-color, and fourteen in four-color. The books would be staple-bound. The group originally discussed a 50-cent price for the books, but Western did not want to compete with other 50-cent books already on the market. The group calculated that if the print run for each title was 50,000 copies instead of 25,000,
16256-727: Was used as a heading title in a collection of essays. The German equivalent was used with the founding of the North German Confederation whose constitution granted legislative power over the protection of intellectual property ( Schutz des geistigen Eigentums ) to the confederation. When the administrative secretariats established by the Paris Convention (1883) and the Berne Convention (1886) merged in 1893, they located in Berne, and also adopted
16384-523: Was useful. By and large, these principles still remain the basic principles of current patent laws. The Statute of Monopolies (1624) and the British Statute of Anne (1710) are seen as the origins of the current patent law and copyright respectively, firmly establishing the concept of intellectual property. "Literary property" was the term predominantly used in the British legal debates of
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