now I think you know most of this story but for the sake of everyone else, I will start from the beginning.
our story begins in 1889 germany, where a company called kaweco has just established itself for its dip pens, later branching out into fountain pens. in 1912 kaweco released its sport fountain pen line, with a design to be refined over decades into the familiar faceted cap, pocket-sized body. over 100 years after the name kaweco first appeared, and despite kaweco coming and going and changing hands multiple times, the kaweco brand remains a major player in fountain pens. kaweco is a name desirable to have associated with a pen. the kaweco sport is internationally famous, and is kaweco's most recognized fountain pen. it has been released in a variety of colors and materials.
the world famous pocket-sized faceted pens.
in the late 2010s, a fountain pen company called moonman gained international attention for its high quality and affordable products. this is the same company that developed the huge fucking chungus, the absolute unit, the short and fat moonman q1 that has gained meme status. but that is just one of their many offerings. moonman is among several other chinese pen companies ramping up the standard for affordable fountain pens. a fountain pen enthusiast can purchase a high quality fountain pen for a fraction of the price of an equivalent pen sold elsewhere. a pen that costs $20 can often work as well as a pen that costs hundreds, for example. chinese pen companies have become a major competitor in the international fountain pen industry, often drawing inspiration from other pen designs, even improving on their form and function for a much lower price.
within the past year or few, european fountain pen companies have realized that these affordable chinese pens are just becoming higher quality and more popular, and they are not happy. kaweco is fucking PISSED.
kaweco released a statement that they are, and I quote, "annoyed" that moonman pens look similar to kaweco pens, along with a couple other brands. kaweco claims these companies make designs too similar to their sport, liliput, and supra pens. mostly the sport. after being frustrated by moonman ignoring their attempts at communication and demands for a specific pen design to be changed, kaweco has successfully filed for and acquired trademarks of "moonman" and a few other chinese pen brand names, despite moonman and the other companies already being well-known brands selling to worldwide markets. kaweco now owns the names “moonman”, "delike", and "wing sung". kaweco's statement declares that they are holding the moonman trademark hostage specifically until moonman changes the designs of their pens to kaweco’s approval and pulls all fountain pen kaweco deems similar from the market. they insist that this is not due to the success of moonman, and encourage people to make their own judgements.
the "moonman" brand pen that kaweco cites as ripping off their designs is the moonman t1, as pictured here. kaweco is apparently making a claim that the faceted cap is too similar to that of the kaweco sport, and is retaliating against this pen specifically. however, that is where the similarities end. the kaweco sport is a pocket sized pen that uses converters and cartridges, while the moonman t1 uses a full body piston filling system. the end of the pen is a knob for the internal piston, which holds a LOT more ink.
now this next part is extremely important, kaweco had previously tried to trademark the design of the kaweco sport in the EU, and this trademark was completely rejected. kaweco does not have a trademark on even the internationally famous kaweco sport design, let alone of a pen that just happens to have a faceted cap. this is why kaweco is seizing pen brand names instead of going after individual pens with designs close to the kaweco sport, because they do not own the trademark on those designs. so, kaweco aims for the throat instead.
instead of complying with kaweco's demands and changing their pens to kaweco's approval, which again they have NO legal obligation to beyond kaweco's manufactured hostage situation, moonman decided to change its entire company name. moonman pens can now be found primarily under the english name "majohn", due to as they describe, a german company seizing their trademark internationally. behold one of the newest pens released under the new name majohn, the majohn rs1.
it has a sturdy, desirable titanium body and has an optional 14 karat gold nib. you can choose rivets or no rivets, too. the brand new titanium body majohn rs1 with a 14 karat gold nib is being sold online for $130. titanium fountain pens are expensive to produce, and usually cost hundreds of dollars without a gold nib.
and, if for completely unrelated reasons, you were interested in the price of getting a gold nib on a kaweco sport, the kaweco sport gold nib unit is sold, by itself, without a pen body attached, for about $160. and that is just the nib. kaweco does not even make a titanium sport with a gold nib. but if they did, it would probably cost at least thrice as much as the majohn rs1.
for anyone enjoying my fountain pen adventures, you can always toss me a spare coin over at my ko-fi.