Keeping our country secure

**belgareth** · 10-28-2004, 02:30 PM

Homeland Security Agents Visit Toy Store

ST. HELENS, Ore. - So far as she knows, Pufferbelly Toys owner Stephanie Cox hasn't been passing any state

secrets to sinister foreign governments, or violating obscure clauses in the Patriot Act.

So she was taken aback by a mysterious phone call from the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security to her small store in this quiet Columbia River town just north of Portland.

"I was shaking in my shoes," Cox said of the September phone call.

"My first thought was the government can shut your business down on a whim, in my opinion. If I'm closed even for a

day that would cause undue stress."

When the two agents arrived at

the store, the lead agent asked Cox whether she carried a toy called the Magic Cube, which he said was an illegal

copy of the Rubik's Cube, one of the most popular toys of all time.

He told her to remove the Magic Cube from her shelves, and he watched to make sure she complied.

After the agents left, Cox called the manufacturer of the Magic

Cube, the Toysmith Group, which is based in Auburn, Wash. A representative told her that Rubik's Cube patent had

expired, and the Magic Cube did not infringe on the rival toy's trademark.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents went to Pufferbelly

based on a trademark infringement complaint filed in the agency's intellectual property rights center in

Washington, D.C.

"One of the things that our agency's responsible

for doing is protecting the integrity of the economy and our nation's financial systems and obviously trademark

infringement does have significant economic implications," she said.

Six weeks after her brush with Homeland Security, Cox told The Oregonian she is still bewildered by the

experience.

"Aren't there any terrorists out there?" she said.

___

Information from:

The Oregonian

**Bruce** · 10-28-2004, 02:43 PM

If that is true, it is disturbing,

but you can guess how mistaking a single vital bit of info could turn the story into a rumor pretty quickly. I am

going to take a wild guess that the phone calls and the visit were actually all from Customs Enforcement and the

Homeland Secuirty part of the story is Sci Fi. The business owner was obviously upset at having gun-toting goons

at her shop, just like I would be, and started raving to the newspapers about "terrorists (blah blah blah) and

don't they have anything better to do with their time (blah blah blah) ? etc etc"

B

**belgareth** · 10-28-2004, 02:47 PM

Taking it at face value, it is

disturbing. I assume, like most responsible newspapers, they made at least some effort to validate the story prior

to printing it.

**DrSmellThis** · 10-28-2004, 03:56 PM

I'll let y'all know if more

drama erupts from the situation, since I read the Oregonian every day. Still this sort of thing doesn't suprise me,

as there are a lot of silly things the feds are getting involved in these days. Bruce could be right in his hunch,

though.

**belgareth** · 10-28-2004, 04:05 PM

He could be right, certainly.

But it is also worthwhile to keep an open mind about it. Without further evidence I find myself taking it at face

value.

**Pancho1188** · 10-28-2004, 04:34 PM

Why would "a spokeswoman for

Immigration and Customs Enforcement" be speaking on behalf of Homeland Security? The spokeswoman spoke of "her

agency," which I believe would be referring to the agency she was a spokeswoman for.

My guess is that if this is

incorrect, it's because the woman got a call from a government agency and just assumed it could've been Homeland

Security because of all of the news on it recently. The only evidence in the article that it was HS was the woman

saying it was. Maybe they just left out something, but why would someone speaking on behalf of one agency speak on

behalf of another? Last time I checked, HS wasn't responsible for trademark infringement and doesn't have an

'intellectual property rights center', either.

If you'd like, I could look for and take a trip down to the

intellectual property rights center and ask what agency they work for.

**belgareth** · 10-28-2004, 05:21 PM

I can't really imagine

Immigration and Customs Enforcement being involved in it either. That sounds like something that should come out of

the Justice or Commerce Department. Isn't Immigration and Customs under Homeland Security?

**Mtnjim** · 10-28-2004, 05:33 PM

"... actually all from Customs

Enforcement and the Homeland Secuirty part of the story is Sci Fi."

Minor point, but I thought Customs was

now part of Homeland Security. If so, they may have used the term for effect.
Just MHO!

**DrSmellThis** · 10-28-2004, 06:17 PM

Thanks, mntnjim; that explains

some of it. Sometimes these days feds do things just to make their presence felt, or to intimidate, depending on who

they're dealing with. That could explain the label. Or maybe it was just routine. Everything is under homeland

security now, I guess. I wish that made me feel safer.

**Pancho1188** · 10-28-2004, 06:37 PM

That's true. I'd go back and

edit my post to cover and eventually deny my mistake, but I'll let it go. I can't be right all of the time. Yes,

I made a mistake. The last post never should've happened!

So the intellectual property rights

ensure internationally-produced toys, etc. obey US standards...

...I'm going to have to side with the lady on

this one. Unless those "magic cubes" have C-4 in them to make them magical, I don't see how that goes under

homeland security...but I guess HS->Customs->Intellectual Property Rights is a logical hierarchy...after they check

for weapons, they check for trademark/copyright infringement.