Customs officers in Siberia have stopped 1,500 counterfeit Rubik’s Cubes at the the Russian border.

Russian border authorities said that the “three-dimensional puzzles in the form of a cube” are trademarked under the World Intellectual Property Organization. Patents over Rubik’s cubes have been at the center of several large-scale legal battles since the toy was first released in the 1970s.

The Irkutsk office of the Federal Customs Service said it stopped 1,440 Chinese-made products at the border.

“Each cube was individually packed in transparent plastic wrap and labeled ‘Toys’ and ‘PLEASE RECYCLE.’... The product turned out to be a Rubik’s Cube,” the customs office concluded.





