The 100-yen shop “Daiso” imitated the company’s products. This appeal from the representative of a design company was spread on social media.
Although some media reported the situation, Daiso denied the suspicion, saying, “We have confirmed that it does not infringe on rights.”
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PAPELANTS (from press release)
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![Daiso product]()
Daiso product “Paper Cactus”
“This is too dangerous. Seriously.”
In mid-January 2023, this representative claimed on Twitter that his interior brand “PAPELANTS” was imitated by Daiso. It is a paper craft in the shape of a cactus and has been on sale since April 2009.
Along with the package photo of Daiso’s product “Paper Cactus” released in September 2010, he complained of damage with a convincing phrase, “Daiso has completely stolen our product. This is too dangerous. Is it serious?” This is completely ripped off.” “It feels like a degraded version of our PAPELANTS.
The package of PAPELANTS says, “We are a botanical shop that proposes new forms of plants in the current lifestyle. PAPELANTS plants, which are made entirely of paper, can be assembled like paper crafts and can be used as interior items. You can use it, no glue, no tape, no scissors, no water, no maintenance.
On the other hand, the paper cactus has a slogan that says, “A foliage plant that you make yourself and doesn’t need water.” It will continue to live in any environment,” and “You can enjoy the scent by dripping aroma oil in the same way as if you were giving it water.”
“I want to punish you somehow.”
Although the two products have the same concept, they seem to be seen as “ripoffs” in the eyes of the representative. The series of accusations spread widely, and criticisms such as “How could such a plan go through?”
Internet media “Gadget Communication” said, “It is unknown what kind of response Daiso will take, but as it continues to spread on Twitter, it is in a state of increasing attention,” without Daiso’s opinion, and the turmoil further increased. Overheated.
According to the article, the representative said, “Daiso really has a lot of ripoff products,” referring to the addictive behavior of counterfeiting, and also posted, “I want to sanction something.”
However, skepticism began to mount against the accusations after it was revealed that a capsule toy called “Paper Cactus” had been released in 2016. This is also a cactus paper craft. “Cactus” means cactus in Japanese. In addition, when searching with “paper cactus”, many foreign-made paper crafts were found.
Capsule toy “Paper Cactus”
Search results for paper cactus
Representative Twitter has since become a “private account” (key account).
On January 20, J-CAST News interviewed Daiso Sangyo, which operates Daiso, and said on February 20, “We are commercializing products while confirming infringement of rights at the product manufacturing stage. We have confirmed that the product does not infringe on the rights,” he said, denying the suspicion.
I also applied for an interview with the representative company, but there was no response by the deadline.