When it comes to business, there are no boundaries in the race for money, and in the children products industry the competition is all the more cutthroat. The Nabi tablet maker and Toys R Us are now fighting over children’s tablet market just before the start of the holiday season.
Fuhu Inc. the maker of children’s Nabi Tablet, launched Monday a burst of accusations against the famous toy shop and developer Toys R Us. And Nabi took it straight to the court of California suing Toys R Us for stealing the patents for technology and design.
The makers of the Nabi tablet believe that Toys R Us put on the shelf a new children’s tablet based on their plans and model. Tabeo, as the gadget from Toys R Us is called, was released not that long after the toy shop ended its contract with Fuhu Inc. and stopped selling the Nabi tablets.
Nabi’s creator, Fuhu, considers that people with Toys R Us agreed to sell the Nabi in the first place only so they could “steal” the model’s secrets. Moreover, Fuhu says that the toy shop also wanted to learn from their very own marketing campaign so it could join the children’s tablet market as one of the rivals.
“Toys R Us used Fuhu’s trade secrets and confidential information to start selling Tabeo, which systematically attempts to replicate the Nabi experience, far earlier than Toys r Us could have done otherwise, if at all” reads the lawsuit against the U.S. company.
Fuhu is just the latest company to enter the patent brawl and previous lawsuits have given the tablet maker just enough confidence to start making high demands. The lawsuit against Toys R Us carries an impressive set of demands. Apart from Fuhu’s monetary damages demands, the company also wants Toys R Us to hand over all of their Tabeos.
Toys R Us hasn’t reacted to Fuhu’s accusations or demands. For the moment, the company said it just didn’t have time to review the lawsuit.
The lawsuit against Toys R Us over the children’s tablets is most likely just the beginning for this market. As tablets become more and more popular educational tools, parents will be forced to take on the price. Whoever wins the market now will get all the perks down the line.
