That's too bad. I know RCM members would never buy the clone, but others might very well jump at the chance.

I think Mike should put a notice on the home page, or at least in the product description that states there are clones popping up and that only the original version developed by RCM carries the parts support, not to mention customer service.

BG, you're slacking...

And I quote from the store front:

^^ Nice. I just saw that, too. :yes:

lol, last I looked it wasn't there. :oops:

But???
 

But there is something missing. "GENUINE MADE IN AMERICA PARTS".

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...raced-chinese/

I know some of you had mentioned the hacking issues, here is a story from just the other day on the 24th.

Mike I too and very sorry and alarmed with the brazenness that this was done, I hope that you can get your pound of flesh from this.

U guys want me to remove the link to the cloned slip?

I don't think any memeber here would buy one and any guests read the whole thread they'll (hopefully)see the error they'd be making buy purchasing a inferior product.

I just left a review of their slipperentials on their website. I basically called them thieves, gave the slipper 0 stars out of 5, and dropped an RC-Monster link within the review. Those mother Fuggers.

Don't know if it's been already posted, but found a little video where the cyclops himself explains the slipperential: http://rcuvideos.com/video/RC-Monste...rential-18-Cen

Pretty cool
 

Pretty cool stuff BG. Now we can imagine what it would be liek to have a discussion with Mike. He sure makes the slipperential look easy to deal with. I plan on getting a couple of them once I recover from my March spending spree. By the way can you get a 44t spur on those? Since that is about all that will fit in the new universal diff mount.

I just saw this response from HPI concerning the Baja clone from KM.

It's amazing how our system can't protect legit companies concerning cloned products.

Getting worse.
 

And it is only going to get worse as time goes by.:whistle: Our Gov has pretty much opened the shipping trades to the point that there is little or no regulation setup to prevent any outside Country from shipping in counterfiet items, which in turn will force legit companies out of business:eyes:. Lower quality or not people in large numbers will always go for the cheapest prices due to hard economic times:oh:. My wife and I looked around the house one night curious as to how much of our household stuff was made outside of the USA:neutral:. Low and behold about 80% of our personal property is foreign made:gasp:. In fact I bet most of us have the same situation if you look closely:yes:. Aside from that you will be hard pressed to even find alot of the stuff we use on a daily basis that is even made in America any more:no:.

Something can be done about this. All one needs is a few good (Really bad in this case) guys in China to handle the situation.

You'd think that at least the legal system would be able to penalize the resale of items in the US. Yeah, maybe we can't do anything about the actual overseas counterfeit production, but we should be able to discourage local vendors from selling them via penalties.

BTW: HPI made a spelling error. "...The company and it's items...". Should be "its".

I was talking to one of my RC friends via phone yesterday and he asked me what I thought of the Slipperential. I said they are great and went of to describe the features and applications. He said he bought one from over seas (I assume from the seller in question?) I immediately told him of this thread and how they are crooks etc etc and how Mikes will surely be stronger and more durable. When he receives it (I guess in a couple weeks) would Mike or any one like pictures of it to compare to the real thing ?

I sure am interested in the clone pics.

Someone should buy one and butcher it and display its entrails.But seriously compare the inferior quality of this clone next to the real thing.Its a dual edge sword though givin those SOBs money.

I found this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/XPRO-1-8E-Buggy-...item35a83a41de

I just reported that listing allong with all 7 of the other listings that guy had for the fake slipperential products to eBay as a copywright/tradmark violation.

Everyone needs to do the same. If we are vigilent about reporting them to eBay and enough of us do it we will at least be able to keep them off of there.
Log in to eBay, search for the term slipperential and report every listing that comes up if it's not the RC-monster product.

eBay is pretty good about protecting intelectual property when they know about what is happening.

The Chinese government on the other hand......

I just reported the bastard.

I 100% agree with reporting all auctions, I did participate myself and report all listed. But, Ebay is a greedy SOB and will only pull so many auctions once profits are effected and then stop. They are obvisously all about profits themselves, I hope I'm wrong for Mikes sake.

ebay is nothing without buyers. If they piss me off I just wont buy through them. Sellers dont make them money.... the buyers do.

Ebay has always been good about doing the right thing when it comes to IP from what I know. Besides that, if they dont do something about it if its reported then they open themselves up to a lawsuit from the violated party. More likely to get money for a violation out of ebay (a US based company) than you are out of the Chinese rip off artists.

I reported all the items as well (7 listings, reported qty is more than 10 availible.)

This might be the most useful thing we can do to help Mike. Ideally that fker gets his account banned and loses all the Top Seller priviledges. Keeping these off Ebay will deny a huge worldwide RC market.

As I thought about this situation more something occurred to me: there is a good chance many of the people selling these have no idea this is copyright infringement on Mike's property. Maybe their distributor had these available one day and they've never even heard of RCM. It needs to be stopped, and the person who purchased a Slipperential and copied the design from Mike is guilty as sin, but I'm just saying this guy on Ebay could have his Ebay business ruined when he didn't even know he was doing anything wrong.

They at least deserve a chance to do the right thing and remove the product/listings after notification. If they don't, then they are fair game.

Read it.
 

Have you gone in to review his ebay posting? Read his ebay page. It was obviously posted by a foreigner, because the english is all broken up. Most likely selling from China, or it is the guys cusin or close family member. He knows it is counterfeit crap and they are trying to cash in on MonsterMikes invention.

It looks like all of the listings have been removed. :yipi: I just tried to search for them so I could report them as well but nothing comes up when I search.

I'm not trying to defend the people who stole the design, that is horrible and I hope it stops. But not everyone has heard of RCM or Slipperential. They could have just as well seen it available from their distributor, recognized it was a good idea, and bought some, without any knowledge of RCM. I won't agree that because he is from China and has poor English he must be a thief, that is awful to say. He should be notified his product is in violation of copywright, and then given the chance to do the right thing and stop selling it. If he does, good, if not, then call him a criminal, thief, scumbag or whatever. Anyway, I'm done, because this is just going to get twisted into me supporting the counterfeiters.

And one more time, I am in no way saying this is OK, I want it to stop as much as everyone else, but it's not as cut and dried as some make it out to be.

I just reported the fugger. Hell, they even said it is the only design of it's kind out there. Fug him.

I just found a whole bunch of em......

I agree with one point, simplechamp - to assume that all Chinese(or Black, White, Mexican, Korean, Italian or any other race for that matter) people are bad is wrong on many levels and a violation of humanity in my opinion. There are good people from all races and nations around the world, and scumbags from all over as well. Certainly some 'locations' or people are 'more likely' to be copycats, as is well documented - so suspicion in this case is certainly warranted. China is mentioned specifically in many IP document FAQ and descriptions in fact.

Having said that - The listings have been reported since 3/29 when they became active and the seller has been contacted and informed(and almost certainly is the same party as the manufacturer/seller discussed previously) - the listings remain. I am certain it is the same party(the 'seller' and 'manufacturer' are the same people with multiple business entities). The different names or entities is simple smoke and mirrors here. It is more cut and dry than not in this case. Manufacturing them in China is technically not in violation of anything at this time- selling them and calling the item a "Slipperential" is the violation, however - and once this is pointed out and ignored, the party in question becomes scum if they continue, which they have. This is cut and dry.

Furthermore, it is naive to assume that a seller of this stature/volume is oblivious to the rc market. Their product list includes many brushless conversions and accessories including a Revo motor mount that is remarkably similar to Tekno's - they are thieves, have a history of being thieves, know they are thieves and bank on the notion that integrity carries less importance than money to many people.

Ahh my bad.. That's what I get for being such a good speller! :rofl:

Edit: I just reported them, too.

With this new information you gave Mike there is no doubt in my mind they are bad people and thieves. That's all I was saying was they deserve a chance to do the right thing once they were made aware of wrongdoing, but since they didn't, they are definitely scum.

Hope you can get all of this sorted out and continue to make great products without the worry of people stealing your ideas.

P.S. silver lining: don't they say you know you've really made it in the RC world when Chinese counterfeiters steal your design :wink:

http://www.google.com/support/websea...l=en&answer=58

Might be worth persuing this route too, in order to remove any hits that tcs website might otherwise get.

Do we have any resident PC dudes who can 'take down' websites?... :whistle:

Well, I just got an interesting email back from that TCS place thats selling the slipperential clones:

Please note I dont own a Blackberry, that is tagged on autonmatically by the device the responce was sent from ( the cloner ).

I'd assume patent-pending is close enough to patented to scare the cloners into stopping production & removing their version from sale? Probably wont, but if Mike sends them the patent # & info then they cant deny they havent just copied his design without realising... :diablo:

Im going to keep asking them stupid questions untill they throw in the flag. I am temporally:diablo:

:grrrrrr::diablo:When you google slipperential "their" site is the first link!!!

I'd use THIS to spam them into submission... :wink:

I think Mike posted a link to his patent info once but I cant locate it,- would be handy so that I can email those a-holes back with the info to prove they are infringing on his patent and trademarks etc, see what they have to say ( if anything ). :no:

damn mike that sucks, if you can think of anything we can all do to help you let us know, i reported afew i found on ebay but what else could we do