Copy cat ... nun hat es auch mich erwischt
In diesem Artikel (s.u.) geht es um ein Plagiat
(Deutsche Kurzfassung inklusive Kommentar)
Da die Plagiatoren in China sitzen, habe ich den Artikel auf EN verfasst.
Ja, China ist weit weg und machen kann ich nix.
Auch mein Verlag JOLLY THINKERS aus Hong Kong kann nicht wirklich etwas machen (Kontakt- und Schlichtungsversuche sind im Sande verlaufen).
Ja, Plagiate kommen immer wieder vor, oft in weit größerem Umfang.
Nicht nur im Bereich der Spiele.
Ein soooo großes Thema!
Und wer hat noch im Blick, dass die FIDGET SPINNER irgendwann von jemand entwickelt worden sind, bevor die Nachahmungen die Welt überschwemmt haben?
Oder dass es irgendwann auch den allerersten MONOBLOC-Stuhl gab? (Podcast und Doku und Buch erzählen die Geschichte).
Aber zurück zum Thema des Artikels.
Die Bilder hier und im Artikel zeigen es:
Mein Spiel KARLA KUCHENFEE (EN Titel: Moo’s Code) wurde von einer Firma in China zu fast 100% plagiiert.
Geändert hat die Firma BIG BEAR AND BEE für ihr Plagiat SANDWICH RECIPE nur die Hauptperson und die Zutaten: Aus der Kuh wurde ein Schwein. Es wird kein Kuchen gebacken, sondern ein Sandwich zusammengestellt.
Identisch sind:
- Die Art und Anzahl der Karten
- die Abbildungen auf den Karten (Dinge und an den Silben der Dinge entsprechende Klopfsymbole)
- die Gewinnbedingung
- der Holzlöffel zum Klopfen der Silben
… alles identisch.
Leider insgesamt in einer so guten Qualität, dass es wirkt wie eine Lizenzausgabe.
Eine Lizenzausgabe wurde bedeuten:
Der Verlag, der die Rechte hat … und ich als Urheberin bekommen unsere Leistung vergütet.
Aber leider ist das Spiel keine Lizenzausgabe.
Sondern ein Plagiat.
Der Artikel ist zuerst am 07.03.2023 auf Board Game Geek erschienen.
Vielen Dank an Eric W. Martin für den entsprechenden Support.
Auch die Berufsvereinigung der Spieleautoren SAZ, deren Mitglied ich bin, weist in einer Pressemitteilung auf den Fall hin.
Und ebenfalls im März 2023 gibt es einen weiteren Fall zu dem Thema - und der spielt in Deutschland. Alle Infos zu "Unfinished Business" ... einem Plagiat von BIG DEAL von Brent & Jeffrey Beck sind ebenfalls auf der Seite der SAZ nachzulesen.
Moo's Code...and an Incredible Copy
My Name is Anja Wrede and I am a game designer from Germany.
Mostly I am working on children’s games and the topic of this article is one of my children’s games.
Its first edition is called KARLA KUCHENFEE – it was first published in Germany in my own publishing house in 2010. I designed the game and the drawings as well.
Then, the game went on and till now it has been licensed to publish in several countries. The first one was France – the game is entitled “CAROLE ET SES DROLES DE RECETTES”, then other countries followed. I am happy that for quite some years Jolly Thinkers has published the game as “MOO’S CODE/ MOO斯密碼” in several countries.
To get an overview you might take a look at the feed on BGG
So what is special about the game?
- When you look at it, the first thing you see is the wooden spoon.
- The second thing you see are different cards with pictures and dots.
- A player gets the spoon and a card that shows him what to do – how many times he should tap on the table to show the combination of items he is looking for. He strikes one to four taps for each item. In between two items, he stirs the spoon to show that the signal for an item is done and there will be another one.
- These signals are fixed to the syllables of the items – so it is easy to remember them. And by the way: it is fun, and it is learning as well.
- The other players listen and then look through all the cards on the table for the matching one.
- And there is a mouse on some cards: The player screams to signal this card each time it appears.
- To facilitate the learning of the tapping structure, all players receive an aid card. It shows the picture and the signals.
- Because the game is based on syllables, the items used in the game are different in the different language versions.
So why I am writing all these?
Looking at these pictures, you see several versions of the game.
One is different from all others.
Oh, it is obvious, you will say: Only one shows a pig, all others show a cow.
You are right about this point, but this is not the point I want to tell you about.
So what is the point?
Well, besides the material, they all look the same.
Even the themes are the same: Looking for something to eat.
One of these is not a licensed version.
One of these games is a copy.
It is SANDWICH RECIPE (BIG BEAR AND BEE), the game with the pig.
It is even made nicely, with nice material and nice graphics … when you see it you might think: Oh, it’s a new licensed version of KARLA KUCHENFEE/MOO`S CODE, looking nice as well.
No, it is not.
It is 100% a copy: the number and types of cards, the number of items, the spoon, and even the winning situation are all the same as those of my game.
Oh, ok, only 99% resemblance because they turned the cow into a pig.
The Company “BIG BEAR AND BEE” is from China.
They started producing the copied version in 2022.
Looking at the backside of the box, you even see they care about the formal information that should appear on a game box.
They are trying to sell the game to companies as if they designed it and own the rights.
This is not true.
Not at all.
So what can we – Jolly Thinkers, the publisher, and me, Anja, the designer – do?
We like to play games and we would like to talk if there is something wrong.
We like to follow rules, while playing and while working in games as well.
- Well, the situation about the rights is difficult.
- And it is difficult to reach this company in China. We tried to reach out but did not receive any answers to our request.
- How could I and how could the publisher even take care for the rights all over the world?
- How could we even notice if there is a copy somewhere?
- How could designers and publishers earn their living if others just take the ideas and copy them and earn their money with the ideas and the work of someone else?
- These are only one of the questions that should be talked about.
So, one answer is to talk about and show what happened to as many people as possible.
So please share this article.
So please tell Jolly Thinkers and me if ever you see any copied versions like SANDWICH RECIPE without my name on it,
or show the copycats on social media and identify them as a copy.
Let’s stay together and hope that this copy market will not grow.
Thank you,
All the best,
Anja Wrede
Read the article and the comments on BGG/ Designer Diary:
Tom Vasel shows the american Version of the game in this Video