Did you Trademark" Reborn Baby Dolls"?

Baby Talk
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This is an open letter to “The Original Reborn”

We are not sure who you are, where you come from, what your background is but we are your reborn artists community. We are a group of women who love this art form. We create, collect, paint, sculpt… We are a tight knit group of artists and collectors some who have been around since the beginning and some who are new (like me).

Nothing about this art form is truly “original” the first reborn doll was a store bought doll, already designed and produced. The idea to take it to the next level was a unique idea and we are all doing this now because of it.

This art form improves upon itself because not unlike the glass makers in Venice, this is a small community that shares its ideas, techniques, troubleshoots together, lifts each other up. There is no competition, we are all in this together because it is fun and we like challenging ourselves to do better.

I know you feel like this is a witch hunt, and it may feel unfair and hurtful and all this is scary and you may feel alone.

You are not.

It is my belief that your initial intentions were good. We are all frustrated by The companies from China mass manufacturing factory dolls, marketing them as “reborns”, then undercutting those of us who labor over these dolls. I for one understand what you may have been trying to do by getting the trademark.

I think many of us are upset because you didn’t lean on your community and discuss this, think this through completely. By trademarking a term that does not belong to you and by using that to take business away from other artists you have created a lot of anger and distrust.

I personally am going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I believe you are here on this forum, maybe on others, and I am hoping this letter finds you.

I think you can make this right, and it can be done easily.

You might want to let people know (you can post a letter to your website) that your intention was not to hurt other reborn artists. Apologize to the people that were affected by you on Etsy and any other market place. Pull your right to trademark and try your best to forge some relationships with your community. Time will heal, we all make mistakes, and if you are a good person and a good artists that will shine through and the rest will fade.

We are an awesome group of people, no one wants to hurt anyones feelings or make them feel bad, but we protect each other and protect this art form we love so much.

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@Gabriell , thank-you, that was a thoughtful and kind letter. I hope she reads your letter and pulls her right to trademark. Those on this forum are wonderful and we want to keep providing and selling professional quality reborn baby dolls. :grinning:

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That’s amazing!

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You always know the best things to say.

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Truly a great letter. I’ve read on fb that she has spoken to people and called them stupid for not thinking of this idea before she did. :0(

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Lol Obviously those who did not do this are not the stupid ones.It would truly take someone unthinking and rude to think that they could copyright a general term used to describe a broad spectrum of art dolls.And it’s downright rude to all the artists who have spent years practicing this art.I have not and do not want to speak to her,I simply think she needs to step back and take a look at the difference between her so called Original Reborn Dolls and a real reborn doll that has had hours,days and weeks spent creating it.If she is reporting people’s listings and having them removed from any selling place such as Ebay Etsy Reborns.com or anywhere else,she is deliberately trying to sabotage our art and keep us from selling.No way will I defend her actions,She is not trying to help to get the China knockoffs off the market,that is not under U.S. jurisdiction.That’s a total excuse made up to defend her actions against the reborn community.

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You could email it to her; I am sure I saw her email somewhere earlier today. Maybe there is the contact on her website?
But I suspect she knew exactly what she is doing. Well, to the point that she thought she will bump off competition. She does not understand that she cannot get rid of Chinese sellers.

Best strategy is to re-word your listings, and maybe we should compose a notice to include in ALL our listings on eBay and ETSY or private websites, stating that due to this person’s action we are not able to list dolls as “reborn doll” or “reborn baby doll” and soon buyers will learn not to look for reborn doll. If we agree on one term, it would make it easy then for people to search for real reborns.

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Mine are listed as" OOAK Reborn Art Doll"

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I think you’ve got the best term for us “real reborns” But i’ve read she is flagging any listings with any of the combination of the words reborn baby and doll. Apparently even using one of the words in the listing will set her off on you.

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I think it was a nice gesture on your part. As far as I’m concerned though, I have no sympathy. I’ve seen her responses to others. It seems she was very well aware of what she was doing. For some of us, this is our only income and because of her actions, perhaps, someones kids might suffer the consequence this Christmas. I’m a very empathetic person, so for me to say this… says something.

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@ludmila

I posted it on different forums, emailed, and messaged her on her personal FB when it was still active.

The only response I have is that she feels this is unfair…its a witch hunt…

I tried with kindness, it is all you can do, give a person a chance. It is up to her how this will go now.

I believe she will lose more than she gains, sad.

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Does it have to go to court to revoke the trademark registration, or can the USPTO just cancel it on the basis that reborn baby doll is a generic term?
OK, it seems to me that when she registered this trademark she did not do it thinking that she will corner the market; she did it to make money from the trademark. Just like people used to register all sort of domains of well known business and then offered them for sale. Wonder if she has more trademarks in her name. Anyway that would explain why nobody hears of her or her nursery.

Personally. I never liked the expression “reborn” because that is not what we are doing now. I am quite happy to leave any mention reborn out of my listings. She can be paying her attorney to fight with the Chinese; that should be funny, if such big names like Chanel and Louis Vuitton cannot stop counterfeit items, and they have worldwide registration, I doubt she get very far.

Interesting, I have just searched eBay and got 21,357 results for reborn baby doll , and another 400+ for reborn baby doll kit. The eBay bots are not doing their job very well.

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Wow, first I have heard of this. Wonder if she realises how many little girls used markers to remake their dolls into babies. Surprised that eBay or the trademark itself went thru. I guess it is first one to the patent office. So if we think of a new term, someone better trademark it and just let it be used by everyone before someone else trademarks it for profit.

As for China, forget it. Like it or not, we are a global economy and they can produce dolls at a lower price than we can. I haven’t seen any of them in person so I don’t know if they will be making them to the same handmade standards but suspect they will. Only way to win is for the consumers to commit to buy “made in the USA” babies and pay the extra for that.

So the art is starting to strangle under regulation from trademarks and competition. Just hoping no one can make it illegal for us to paint babies. Yeesh, need new term badly!

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Does that mean I can get a patent for “Doll kits painted to look real made in the USA” or any combination of the words “doll, paint, baby, painted real, look, babies, dolls, paints, USA, made”? How did she prove she was the first one and can it be contested? I know she may have gotten her feelings hurtbut hoping she doesn’t destroy a whole art form out of spite. The more I think of this, the sicker I feel. Really depressing and I am not even making dolls to sell right now.

Will it prevent big companies like Paradise Galleries from selling using that term too? Where did you find out it was trademarked?Never mind, went to the patent office and found it. TESS -- Error
Apparently since no one opposed it during the six months it was posted for, she got it. Of course no one suspected she was going for it. Restricted it for every type of doll on the market even. Not sure if she will enforce it or sue companies for using it.

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Let’s rename the art form and trademark it for free use!

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This lady will not succeed with her plans, and she will never be successful. This is a small, tight knit community where reputation means everything, and obviously hers is not good at the moment. I’d venture to say that short of plastic surgery and a name change, it will never be. :wink:

As an aside, I browsed through her FB page just to see what was going on. Saw a pic of Gemma for sale with comments, so I opened it. Someone said something about thinking it was a real child. The next person came along with something like, “If you like this one, you should see one painted by an artist with talent.” I almost choked on my soda. :joy:

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lol,don’t choke.

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I spend much of my day laughing. It’s practically unavoidable, @CarolinaCuties :smile:

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Did you read where she offered to “sell” the copyright.That made me laugh.

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Beyond laughing, @CarolinaCuties. That was snort material there. :joy: