With the Rubik’s Cube back in fashion (12 million sold globally last year, with 15 million projected for this year), the company which owns the worldwide rights to the Cube has issued a warning to both retailers and shoppers to beware of fakes this Christmas.

“Around this time of year, every year, we remind both the trade and the consumer to watch out for sub-standard copycat cubes” says David Hedley Jones, Senior Vice President at London-based Seven Towns Ltd., the company which originally set Hungarian professor Erno Rubik on the trail to glory with his unique puzzle, back in the late 1970s.

Seven Towns holds the worldwide rights in the trademarks, copyrights and the overall image of the Rubik’s Cube® - and David oversees the company’s brand enforcement/intellectual property protection programme, which operates throughout the world.

“The intrinsic design and look of the Rubik’s Cube has not changed at all since those early years” continues Hedley Jones. “And as, over the decades, new generations of puzzlers have taken up cubing, we have always taken extreme care to ensure that the iconic Rubik brand keeps fresh and vivacious in the eyes of the public.”

“We work closely with customs authorities, trading standards officers and the police throughout the world, and have on many occasions been able to stop fake shipments (mainly from the far east) from reaching their intended destinations.”

“If, wherever you are in the world, you are offered Rubik’s Cubes which do not carry the Rubik’s logo, or are not in the ‘official’ packaging developed by ourselves in co-operation with our territorial distributors, we would ask you to contact us, so that we can consider taking immediate legal action further up the supply pipeline. Throughout the year, we do everything within our power to stop shipments of counterfeit cubes at the docks – with considerable success, I might add.”

“Brand enforcement is a way of life these days” David continues. “It is becoming more and more essential to attack both the supply and the demand for fake goods, and we also work closely with our licensee partners in over 30 countries, to ensure that our mutual global protection and enforcement strategies are robust and co-ordinated.”

“In this way we safeguard both our intellectual property and the creative development of the Rubik’s brand for future generations to experience and enjoy to the full.”

If retailers or traders are offered what they think might be counterfeit Rubik’s Cubes, they should contact the Legal Department at Seven Towns Ltd., telephone +44 (0) 207 727 5666, or email davidj@seventowns.com.