Cloned Slipperential?
 

Look what I've found? It seems like a clone. I'm not sure abt the quality though. I emailed the people. They tell me it's made of hardened steel.

Well, I think "slipperential" is copyrighted. It should be anyways... The design itself is a complete rip-off. Once Mike's pat. pending actually goes through they won't be able to sell that anymore. It's wayy to close in design and would definitely qualify as infringement.

^^^ + 1

Yep. I put it here so Mike can see this and take it up with them.

Disgusting but thanks for posting. Hopefully mike can get them.

Can someone give Mike a call? I know he's busy at RCX but i'm sure he'll wanna do something fast. I'm in Singapore. You guys can tell him its Adric from Singapore.

Thanks for the heads up, Adric - I saw this post last night and will be in touch with my lawyer ASAP.

Wow, that sucks! According to the "about us" page, they are a dealer in Hong Kong. Can anything even be done legally since they are in China?

As far as I know, certain patents are intentional so it does cover China or HK. The problem may lie with the hassle of engaging yr own lawyer who in turn has to engage a China/HK based Patent lawyer to carry out the patent demand.

An extract from Wiki:

Enforcement
The plate of the Martin ejector seat of the military aircraft, stating that the design is covered by multiple patents in Britain, South Africa, Canada and "others". Dübendorf Museum of Military Aviation.

Patents can generally only be enforced through civil lawsuits (for example, for a U.S. patent, by an action for patent infringement in a United States federal court), although some countries (such as France and Austria) have criminal penalties for wanton infringement.[14] Typically, the patent owner will seek monetary compensation for past infringement, and will seek an injunction prohibiting the defendant from engaging in future acts of infringement. To prove infringement, the patent owner must establish that the accused infringer practices all the requirements of at least one of the claims of the patent. (In many jurisdictions the scope of the patent may not be limited to what is literally stated in the claims, for example due to the "doctrine of equivalents").

An important limitation on the ability of a patent owner to successfully assert the patent in civil litigation is the accused infringer's right to challenge the validity of that patent. Civil courts hearing patent cases can and often do declare patents not valid. A patent can be found invalid on grounds that are set out in the relevant patent legislation that vary between countries. Often, the grounds are a subset of the requirements for patentability in the relevant country. Although an infringer is generally free to rely on any available ground of invalidity (such as a prior publication, for example), some countries have sanctions to prevent the same validity questions being relitigated. An example is the UK Certificate of contested validity.

The vast majority of patent rights, however, are not determined through litigation, but are resolved privately through patent licensing.[clarification needed] Patent licensing agreements are effectively contracts in which the patent owner (the licensor) agrees to forgo their right to sue the licensee for infringement of the licensor's patent rights, usually in return for a royalty or other compensation. It is common for companies engaged in complex technical fields to enter into dozens of license agreements associated with the production of a single product. Moreover, it is equally common for competitors in such fields to license patents to each other under cross-licensing agreements in order to share the benefits of using each other's patented inventions.

It says that http://www.hobbypro.com.hk/ made it.

Apparently so.

Mike,

Check all the sells for the Slipperential made to HK and find the source. The company that copied our master piece had to buy it. It looks identical to your. Go after everyone involved in it.

What a bunch of dirty bastards, sic'em Mike !

This is exactly why I try hard to not buy anything Chinese made (including lipo's). They are notorious for this activity.

That's a low blow. That thing looks like an exact duplicate.

Wow. Despicable. Hope you stick it to them Mike.

I tried finding the slipperential on the hobbypro site, even used the search function but no dice. Out of curiousity I googled slipperential on my iPhone, and that tcmodels site came up in the first 5 results, showing their price also. A low blow indeed. But that's china's R&D, recieve and duplicate.

Screw those Aholes, I just bought my Slipperential yesterday from Mike! You know they will cut corners and use cheaper materials, then when it fails who do you turn to! For my hard earned money I want the real deal and the support that goes with it!!!!!

thieves
 

I am working on a resolution - I did find the pertinent information and have my Copyright/Patent Attorney on the case. They ordered the original unit directly from me on October 15, 2009(less than 5 months to copy my years of work and R&D.
There is no question that this is a direct copy(even used the copyrighted name) and a direct infringement on my intellectual property.

Wow... You have to wonder if they actually expected to get away with this. :grrrrrr:

Mike, I am glad you are unleashing the hounds on them.:whip:

Amazing how far people will go to copy someones design

That sucks, but you knew it was going to happen. PdC has spoken how Chinese co's readily steal their designs. Hoping for a good asskicking.

+1 ^

I would probably remove that link so they don't get any more publicity... it is a shame that people can so easily ride off the sweat and blood of others.

It's a great product Mike I hope you get the exclusivity and patent you deserve.

Wow!!!
 

WOW that sucks. Nothing is safe these days. I have to wonder if there really is anything that can be done to stop this considering all of the red tape involved with international laws and such. I wonder if contacting the Department of State and sharing this infringement would help any? I know they have a whole deaprtment that deals with counterfit stuff being made in foreign countries. Diplomacy is a key factor in allot of these situations with our so called allies. You know only the kids on TRX will buy them.

Well, in any case, it's good that pretty much every TRX product can't use the slipperential without some serious modification - and any enthusiast capable of that probably knows the difference and will buy the real deal from Mike.

Hey Mike,

Good luck with this. They ripped off our Revo conversion a while back, but there was nothing we could do. This is a little different since they actually copied a patent pending part. So hopefully they'll think twice about it in the future. The only way to combat this kind of stuff is to stay ahead of them on the design side of things. I'm sure the Slipperential won't be the last RC-Monster innovation. Keep your head up (I'm sure it's up and ready to kick some ass!).

The counterfeiters probably are counting on the fact that it would be far too expensive for most small business owners to get caught up in potentially fruitless litigation. I bet most small businesses just get tired of trying to fight an overseas battle with just high legal fees to show for it. Let's hope this ends well, but I have LONG since lost any respect, trust, or hope for the legal system.

As said as it is, i'm betting they rely on the fact that there is so much red tape and diplomatic bullshit for us to go through to have them repremanded, not too mention legal fees. It really sucks to see it happen and I know you have a whole RC-Monster nation behind you Mike!

Wow that's really low blow, 5 months? gees... at least you have hard evidence that they ordered one directly form you 5 months ago. I hope your lawyer can really kick there a$$e$ to the curb. They don't know who there messing with, you've been preparing for this day:diablo:

Tasteless doesn't say it. Illegal works pretty good. Infuriating works. I hope you can get them GOOD Mike.

That sucks. I hope you can get great resolution for this.

wow.... That's just ridiculous. I hope you can stick it to these guys Mike.

Words fail me.

Talking??
 

Mike we are all at a loss about what is going on here. My wife and were talking last night about your situation. We both work for the US Department of State and have seen alot of stuff like this going on. We have worked with special agents who were investigating stuff just like this, but more so items that value in the millions of $$$$$ in losses. Unfortunately our Gov is very lacking in control over what these other countries are doing in this area, and the Gov control over imports has gotten rediculously lax in general there for not protecting US businesses. I doubt that you will be able to do very much at all in regards to stopping them from selling on the internet. It would end up costing you alot more fighting this, then what you may or may not lose as a result of their shady business practices. I belive you have enough of a fan base to keep things in check. Plus people are begining to realize that buying USA products is a key to getting our economy back in check. Advertising is a good key for success in this line of business and you are doing fine there. Don't let anger drive you to doing something you may regret in the long run. You have a great business model going here so keep up the good work Sir.

A good start would be removing the link off the first post, so it doesn't get any more publicity! :whip:

Too late for that
 

Its already too late for that. I have seen it in other sites and read discussions about it. I think it is best that we all cover discussions about it and gather collective info and advice that will help RCM stay strong even in the face of adverity. This is just a fact of life in our buisness society that we have to deal with and overcome. Life goes on.

Sounds like hiring Russian hackers to just launch DNS attacks might be more effective...

You do hear about the rampant IP piracy in China, and that govt unwillingness to stop it (if not outright support it)

Tell me about it! Being in IT, I get "security alert" emails at work at least once a day describing new vulnerabilities and hack attempts. Sorta makes you want to unplug from the net sometimes!

Correct.
 

Oh boy are you right about that BG. One of our son's PC's locked up last week. Once we got into it and began to check what was wrong we discovered that he had over 30 (Trojen key logger) viruses from watching videos on UTube. We have a firewalled router, and protected modem, plus Gov supplied virus protection and none of them stops them if they really want into your system. We have now setup restrictions on his PC, but anymore problems will result in disconnection for him. I am pretty careful but even my PC gets hit from time to time regardless of what protections you have installed. I update once a week, do registry optomizer, and try to keep things clean, but you just never know whats going to happen.