Disney knows full well what is going on with efx AND Anovos.
This. Everyone knows that when Disney allows you to make a Star Wars product, they are licensing their intellectual property – for example, the design of the prop. But people forget that there is also a trademark license granted as well. This license is necessary so that you have permission to place Disney's name or the Star Wars name on the product (both of which are trademarks of Disney these days.)
Under the law, a trademark generates its value from the goodwill that comes to be associated with the Mark – for example, the value in Disney trademarks comes from the fact that, over time, people have come to associate Disney as signifying a certain level of quality in movies, products, theme parks, etc. Same for Star Wars.
Believe it or not, trademark law also is intended to protect the consumer, not just the trademark owner – trademarks are protected to avoid a consumer being harmed by buying a shoddy good bearing a trademark that they have come to know and trust. This is why the law of trademark licensing says that failure of a trademark owner to exercise
actual control over the quality of the goods on which their mark will appear can result in a forfeiture of the underlying trademark rights themselves. Or, put a different way, the law says that, if people come to trust in your trademark and you don't police the quality of the goods that your trademark appears on, you don't deserve to keep the trademark anymore.
So it absolutely behooves Disney to police their licensees who are using Disney-owned trademarks – not simply to make sure that the licenses are properly exploited and make money, but to make sure that poor quality products do not damage the goodwill associated with the Disney marks. In other words, policing is necessary to keep their trademark rights – and – and given all of their merchandising activity, I doubt there is anything more important to to Disney than their trademarks. While the law only specifically speaks to policing the quality of the actual goosd themselves, you can be certain that Disney also includes provisions in their contracts giving them control over the business practices of the companies that will be producing those products-at least to the extent that those business practices can reflect poorly on Disney. [EDIT ADDED FOR CLARITY] - Having the right to control the business practices associated with the Mark doesn't necessarily mean that Disney has the ability to walk in and tell the business how to run – instead – this usually translates into a right to pull the license so that the poorly run business is no longer associated with Disney's trademarks
So I am virtually certain that Disney is watching EFX very closely, and will do whatever it deems necessary to make sure that the goodwill in its trademarks is not harmed. That could mean eventually pulling the license, or it could mean imposing penalties on the company to get quality products out sooner. Whichever Disney feels is most necessary to preserve the goodwill associated with its marks. But in no way is Disney ever going to grant a trademark license and simply walk away while the licensee takes actions that trash the value of their trademarks in the consumer's eye – there's just too much at stake as far as maintaining their trademark rights to ever allow that to happen.
M