It would be indeed interesting if the copyright holder could demand that all copies that have been sold to unsuspecting owners be seized and destroyed. Now that might stop the purchase of imitation goods.
Printable View
Increased competition is not the issue...
I designed and made a product which took hours to develop and test...
Sold 1 kit to a guy who then 'went underground' on a forum I was on...
When he reappeared a few weeks later he was selling a very, very similar item. All he did was machine 2 flat faces onto it (mine were round profile).
He then undercut me on price, until I stopped selling and then upped his price to the market...
At the time he didnt have any products...
He now has a product range - all of which are reverse engineered from other manufacturers with some slight changes...
Who is the winner there? Not those who work hard to develop the items thats for sure. Where do they (we) get return on our hard work???
I've been stung like this many times now... And wont be again!!!
I got some no name jobs 1/4 the price and work fine now seing how they work I can't see the money in them to me honest maybe staun needs to sharpen there pencil and be a bit more competitive
I think that's a bit harsh Frank!!:mad: I have what looks like staun imitation deflators but they came free with the genuine black rat strap I bought which is why I have stauns and imitation set.
There may also be people out there that dont know they are imitations of stauns.. and think they are a product in their own right!!
I'd be curious to know how much it actually costs Staun to manufacture their deflators. A mate got a quote from a Chinese manufacturer, but decided not to import them as they were such a close copy. I asked him how much they quoted and he said $8 per unit plus freight. I commented how cheap that sounded for all that machining of the housing, valve etc etc...........then he said, "That's not $8 per single unit, it's $8 per set of 4"
Purely out of interest, I'd like to know what the genuine one's cost to make and what the mark up is. I have some of my products made on CNC lathes and it's pretty economical, so I can't see the deflators costing a lot to produce, especially considering the small amount of material required.
By the way, I own a genuine set of Stauns and they have performed brilliantly every time I've used them. I'll definitely support an Aussie manufacturer when I can, but I'll also buy Chinese made products if the quality is there.
Cheers, Murray
I wonder how many people are running genuine parts on there land rovers on this forum..and im not talking about the new cars
I'm not supporting people completely ripping off designs but at the same time I'm not against someone making a similar product that's how prices come down, the market becomes competitive and how things become affordable.
Seriously I would like to know how many people in gods honest truth could afford to run a land rover if all they had was genuine parts at what we all know can be inflated prices.
So where does it come in where a company like Ryco as soon as a new model comes out buys a spare filter and then copies it for dimensions but potentially improves ability to filter with better materials. It's still a filter, same size, copied from a genuine article. It's how it works, had a discussion when I found that their D2 filter was listed the same as the D1 whih is similar but slightly different in one dimension. Looks like it fits but doesn't seal if the D1 is fitted to D2, D2 into D1 you just need squeeze it in.
Western culture generally respects intellectual ownership, Asian culture does not understand it at all. Asian cultures believe the clever part is in manufacturing/copying an item cheaper. Asians have no issue if their inventions are copied.
There can be years of R &D go into the development of some gear, that risky investment has to pay a dividend when the end product is marketed. How much money is spent on R & D for products that never eventuate? That money has to be recouped on the items that succeed.
In a nutshell, how would you as an average wage earner feel, if you took a year off work to develop a product, ie a perpetual motion engine, to have it reverse engineered, ripped off with inferior materials/tolerances/labour and sold for a song on eBay China, two weeks after you sold your first one?
China............the world's biggest photocopier.
Genuine products, cheaper from overseas...............totally different story.