With great power comes reduced import fees

[avram]

Some of you will have already heard that the X-Men have been found inhuman by a court of law. Or at least, their miniature plastic representations have been so found. The story ran on the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal (with a color photo of a Wolverine figure), but the article is hidden behind a for-pay subscription wall. A PDF of the court decision is available, and lawyer Eugene Volokh summarizes the matter in his blog. US import tariff law used to (in the ’90s, when this case started) assess higher import tariffs on dolls than on other toys, with dolls being defined as human figures. Marvel wanted the lower fees, and so argued that the figures’ non-human features made them other toys, cheaper to import from China where they were manufactured. Ironically, as Daniel Weiner points out:

The most incredible aspect of this whole sordid affair is that the U.S. Government defended the X-Men's humanity, while Marvel stabbed them in their non-human backs.

Me, I wonder how long it’ll take for this to show up in the actual x-books, and which x-author will get it in there first. (My money’s on Grant Morrison, of course.)

Comments

[akawil]

Slashdot's link to the WSJ story, <http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB1043013622300562504,00.html>, seems to be viewable without a subscription.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

That's a funny story.

In the 80s, I think it was Kraft who defended a suit from a consumer by saying that advertising was ineffective and no one believed it anyway.

I can remember reading about it in Advertising Age, but all other details are so vague this should be consigned to the urban legend scrap heap.