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: