Product Rip Offs

[Scooter]

Even with patents, you have to disclose how things are done which can really backfire since the information on how it work is disclosed and now they can seek ways around the patent. You do have to prove that no one else has your idea before you. If someone proves that they made it before you did, your patent is no longer valid.

Funny thing is, I recently changed jobs, and our business is to reverse engineer other people parts. We deal with military and civilian aerospace parts. For the most part, we work off the original blueprints from the companies that developed the products and we HAVE to build identical parts or it wouldn't be a direct replacement part.

Modern advances in engineering has made reverse engineering someone else's parts even easier. A lot of parts companies supply 3D models for people to use. Companies like Southco Latches have accurate 3D models so you can easily incorporate their parts into your products. The 3D models also suppy you with about 80-90% of the information you need to build the part. They are more dimensionally accurate to the print than if you bought a part and measured it.

Hate to say it, but that's just the price of doing business. If you develop something, someone will copy it and make it cheaper. There's very little you can do to stop that.

[SRT Driver]

First, I'd like to thank everyone for their support.

And I'd like to say that this was a complete misunderstanding after talking to the vendor which originally prompted this thread. It seems that both of us came up with similar ideas and arrived at the same conclusion without any knowledege of the other and an amicable solution has been arrived at.

I look forward to meeting this individual face - to - face in the future and it is unfortunate that our first interaction was not under different circumstances.

But in keeping with the spirit of the forum, I hate that the unscrupulous 2% adversely affect the perception of the other 98%.

[Loves2Shoot]

A good life lesson IMO.