WHILE Jurassic Park is a huge box-office hit, movie producer MCA Universal is having monster problems with pirates of its dinosaur products in Hong Kong and China. Orrin Ezralow, director of international licensing at Plaything Merchandising Co, the licensing agent for Jurassic merchandise, said counterfeiting was more than just a financial loss for a company as it damaged the territory's market image. ''Piracy not only takes away from those who have created the ideas, forms and vehicles that generate those profits, but additionally generates an atmosphere of distrust which weakens confidence in a local market to be able to supply goods effectively,'' Mr Ezralow said. He admitted counterfeiters could make huge profits out of dinosaur T-shirts and paper products in a short time. Wilkinson & Grist, the law firm representing MCA Inc's Universal City Studios, has warned of legal actions against counterfeiters. ''We have been instructed to pursue with all speed to protect our client's interests every party which manufactures, produces, sells or deals in any way with any unauthorised Jurassic products,'' said Ellas Cheong, senior partner of Wilkinson & Grist. Ms Cheong said the counterfeiting of Jurassic goods was a difficult case because dinosaurs themselves could not be copyrighted, unlike an invention such as E.T. Lawyers would have to work closely with MCA to see how the unlicensed products were ''similar'' to the genuine ones and decide whether it was counterfeiting. Jurassic products range from T-shirts, badges, cups, and puzzles to stuffed toys and are not protected under the Trade Description Ordinance which deals with trademark infringement. Legal action could be difficult because MCA had not registered its trademark with the Government, a customs official said.
