Intellectual Property Protection for Mah Jong tiles

I'm an intellectual property lawyer as well as an avid Mah Jong player. Recently, a Facebook page dedicated to showcasing colorful tiles used in the game banned a member who posted an image of Mah Jong tiles she found at Walmart. The tile set was under $100 and comparable to higher end sets that are sold for five times that price. A lot of drama and confusion resulted. The administrators of the page noted that she had displayed a "counterfeit" set and that broke the rules. I want to clarify a few things:

🀀 You can’t get a patent on Mah Jongg tiles - patents are for items that are new, useful, and non-obvious. People have been playing Mah Jong with tiles for centuries. Copyright protection applies to designs. Copyrights are available to "original works of authorship," which is defined by the Copyright Act and includes things like artistic works, furniture designs, television productions and so much more.

A determination of whether something is “counterfeit” or “infringement” can only be made by a court after a long process. "Counterfeit" is not a term to use casually and certainly seems inappropriate for the moderator of a Facebook group to be making that call (and banning a member who had only posted out of curiosity).

🀗 Copyright infringement can sometimes be clear cut, but it depends on a lot of different factors including the similarity, whether the infringer had access to the design, if they’re using/reproducing a design without the owner’s permission.

🀛 I saw those tiles at Walmart recently and wish I had taken a picture - the entire set was super affordable, but I already have two sets. I was going to look at them more closely and see if they intentionally infringed on one of the higher end designs.