Judge orders toys pulled off Web site

OREM — A California judge pulled the plug on an Orem company's sale of mini remote-controlled helicopters and demanded that remaining toys be immediately impounded.

Northern District of California Judge Claudia Wilken ruled Friday that HobbyTron.com must stop importing, advertising, selling or promoting the humming-bird size "Picco Z" helicopter. Plus, the firm has been ordered to give up any remaining inventory until after the case is decided.

HobbyTron.com, an Internet retailer based in Orem, was sued in January by a Chinese toy-manufacturing company, Silverlit Toys Manufactory Ltd., for allegedly stealing intellectual property by selling knockoff toy helicopters.

The toys were gathered Tuesday from the Orem warehouse and will

be stored in a local storage unit until the end of the case. If Silverlit wins the lawsuit, the toys will be destroyed, said Vincent Chieffo, attorney for Silverlit.

"In cases like this, from the plaintiffs point of view, this is the first step," Chieffo said. "What happens next will depend on large part as to what HobbyTron.com ... (decides) to do. This could be the end of the case, or it could be very early in the case."

A three-day trial has tentatively been set for Sept. 10, Chieffo said.

Silverlit alleges that HobbyTron.com purchased thousands of helicopters, but after they ran out of the legitimate "Picoo Z" helicopters, they began importing illegal counterfeits.

The allegedly inferior products were sold under the label of the "Picco Z" or "Pico Z" while still using pictures and instruction manuals from the official Chinese "Picoo Z," the lawsuit alleges.

The Picco Z or any small helicopter-type product has been removed from the HobbyTron.com Web site. However, HobbyTron.com executives and attorney have denied all the lawsuit's claims and maintain that their innocence will come out through the trial process.

The company has also worked to resolve outstanding customer service issues and is up-to-date in their responses to concerned customers' e-mails and phone messages, said company spokesman David Politis.

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