$345,000 in Two Months Ripping off a Product

[CarlSpackler]

It may have been going on for a long time, but that doesn't make it ok. 

[Lihu]

6 minutes ago, CarlSpackler said:

It may have been going on for a long time, but that doesn't make it ok. 

Totally agree. I don't like this and I really don't like it when a team decides who gets on a patent not including the actual inventor. This type of thing happens a lot more than I'd care to talk about.

Unfortunately, it is the way it is. The true innovators just have to innovate faster and not expect any rest until they either die or retire.

[Strandly]

The kid is a douche and a thief and he seems to be proud of it.  He is doing the exact thing that discourages people from coming up with ideas that will make everyone's lives better.  I would vote in favor of a law to execute parasites like this because they contribute nothing positive to society.  Anyway, hopefully this weasel gets a taste of his own medicine someday. 

[iacas]

Yeah, well, look on Amazon for the number of "fidget cube"s out there now… While backers still wait for the "authentic" ones to arrive.

[Lihu]

38 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yeah, well, look on Amazon for the number of "fidget cube"s out there now… While backers still wait for the "authentic" ones to arrive.

Ouch.

42 minutes ago, Strandly said:

The kid is a douche and a thief and he seems to be proud of it.  He is doing the exact thing that discourages people from coming up with ideas that will make everyone's lives better.  I would vote in favor of a law to execute parasites like this because they contribute nothing positive to society.  Anyway, hopefully this weasel gets a taste of his own medicine someday. 

Nah, he'll be lauded like Edi. . .

[boogielicious]

14 hours ago, Lihu said:

Ouch.

Nah, he'll be lauded like Edi. . .

Nah, he will be sued into submission. He will eventually cross the line.

[Lihu]

35 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Nah, he will be sued into submission. He will eventually cross the line.

The thing I wonder is many people do actually come up with similar if not identical ideas. Also, the time it takes to actually copy stuff is really short for simple stuff like in the OP.

This "widget" is a great idea, but it seems like there is nothing that could be patented that could not easily be worked around? I'm not an attorney, but I am a design engineer and can deploy stuff that I am asked to do in a timely manner. I know that there are many other such engineers, working all over the world. As such, the IP in the OP product can be worked around in literally the matter of hours by reasonably good and imaginative mechanical design engineer(s). In turn, the tooling can be made in less than 2 weeks (including iteration) by a small team at most factories that mold stuff in China.

So, the technology is such that copying simple products as in the OP can be faster than shipping, customs and importing a product without the right channels. The OP originator's product might be stuck in customs for all we know?