Japanese Copying Of U.S. Designs Annoys Firm

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28270, 7 May 1957, Page 9

Japanese Copying Of U.S. Designs Annoys Firm

Protracted legal arguments and threats had failed to check the “blatant” imitation of overseas products by Japanese manufacturers, Mr G. R. Smith, export sales manager of an American pen company, said in an interview in Christchurch; Some of the finest

1 pens made in the United States ; were being taken into Japan by , servicemen and being copied ’ cheaply by the Japanese, he said. “We have our lawyers threaten t action and the Japanese say how i sorry they are; that it will never i happen again—but it does. They i are shameless when it comes to

copying overseas designs,” he said. “If they stuck to the manufacture of cheap pens they could sell just as many, but they change the names on well-known brands slightly and market them with the idea of cashing in on the reputation of some of the best pens in the world,” Mr Smith said. Cameras were one of the few items the Japanese copied well. This was only because many of the major camera companies in Japan were controlled by the gov-

ernment, which had a rigorous set of standards. Asked to. comment on educationists’ views that ball-point pens were seriously affecting school pupils’ writing, Mr Smith said the problem had been the subject of a large-scale research and publicity campaign in the United States. “We didn’t teach writing as a curriculum subject until recently,” he said. “Teachers had almost dropped it and concentrated on other subjects. But the

idvent of the ball-point pen caused a serious lowering of the standard of handwriting and special courses were again adopted by various states. “I read in America that a telephone company was losing many thousands of dollars a year because the operators did not write plainly enough to have the callers’ names and numbers noted for accounts,” he said. Steel pens were now being used in the schools, and special fountain pens suitable for school

children in senior classes had been developed. “A special handwriting foundation was formed in America by pen manufacturers to assist in the great tasks involved in correcting children’s writing,” Mr Smith said.