Comparison Yanmar lawsuit.

[houstonscott]

Turns out that was unlawful for the US Customs Service to do that for Kubota and was a mistake they will not make again.

HS

The Kubota case was described here long ago. To oversimplify: As trademark owner, Kubota got an order for Customs to deny entry to anything with their trademark on it. Some tractors got stranded on the docks and had to be re-exported which got everyone's attention.

Yanmar-USA and Yanmar-Japan don't have the legal standing to do likewise for some reason so about all they could do was request Ebay to de-list Yanmar auctions - and now finally, sue some importers.

Maybe somebody has a link to those old threads.

 

[deepNdirt]

I may be mistaking and please correct if i'm wrong, But I was or am to understand that the Yanmar as well as the gray Kubota's were shipped into the U.S. as tractor (Parts,) this was to get around the red tape of having imported gray market tractor's, but of course once the containers were delivered into the US and the parts were distributed to the Buyers/ Dealerships then the " Parts " are re-assembled and then sold as whole working tractors, ...
So perhaps instead of the dealerships re-assembeling the parts themselves why not remove the yanmar name from the units and sale them as a build it yourself tractor kit, once again getting around the leagality and red tape,...

 

[Soundguy]

Turns out that was unlawful for the US Customs Service to do that for Kubota and was a mistake they will not make again.

HS

how could yanmar have ebay de-list yanmar auctions.. when some models could well be domestic models?

 

[clemsonfor]

Tractors are shipped with tires and fenders off, but that is just so that they can fit more into the container. If you look it up you can find videos on either youtube and pics on some japaneese expoter sites where they show contianers being loaded in this way. They load them on top of the tires and then 2 high.

 

[Scooby074]

Tractors are shipped with tires and fenders off, but that is just so that they can fit more into the container. If you look it up you can find videos on either youtube and pics on some japaneese expoter sites where they show contianers being loaded in this way. They load them on top of the tires and then 2 high.

Ive never seen anybody "cube" tractors before.. They sure jam a lot into a container. Impressive.

 

[California]

how could yanmar have ebay de-list yanmar auctions.. when some models could well be domestic models?

Its real. It's described somewhere in Ebay's FAQ's, maybe under 'Why was my auction removed', and I read through it there back when the Yanmar auctions started disappearing. Auctions for US Yanmars aren't affected. (There's a list on Yanmar's website listing the US Yanmars).

How it works for bootleg CD's, movies etc is there are Intellectual Property specialists who contract to watch Ebay and the internet for any appearance of their client's trademark then they send a nasty letter to the website where the bootleg merchandise was listed. I don't know if the Ebay takedowns are requested by such a specialist, by Yanmar's own attorneys, or by programming Ebay's servers to reject specific models.

 

[California]

Turns out that was unlawful for the US Customs Service to do that for Kubota and was a mistake they will not make again.

HS

Is there some place where we can read more about this reversal?

Has importation of gray Kubotas resumed or is there now some other mechanism preventing it?

 

[California]

The safety issues (as I see it) are the hand throttle direction, seat belt, seat kill switch and roll bar. Anything else?

PTO overrun clutch and English decals is all I can think of.

Clutch safety switch. (In the wire between keyswitch and starter). One more: the multi - speed pto. 540 and sometimes 1000 rpm are the standard rear pto speeds on the US Yanmars.

 

[clemsonfor]

Is there some place where we can read more about this reversal?

Has importation of gray Kubotas resumed or is there now some other mechanism preventing it?

The only obvious grey kubotas i have seen have been in the US for awhile based on the folks selling them. You read things like had this tractor 15 years and only done....

 

[California]

Tractors are shipped with tires and fenders off, but that is just so that they can fit more into the container. ... They load them on top of the tires and then 2 high.

Ive never seen anybody "cube" tractors before.. They sure jam a lot into a container. [video attached]

I saw them arrive like that at the local VN importer. Except the carpentry wasn't that great and some of the the lower tractors had dented hoods, scuff marks etc where the load settled.

My RS1400 tiller must have come over in a poured-in load like that shipper's second container. I bought the importer's most weathered looking tiller because it was cheapest. Its adjustment wheel on top was crushed flat. But for $200 including a full set of replacement tines - which it doesn't need yet - it was worth it to straighten the wheel. The wheel straightened out fine. They even included a pto shaft extender, while I think the problem is my 3-point arms are longer than standard. I don't think we will see bargains like this again.