Wow. In the UK we have this.
Either that or I'm wrong and @Kai'll shout at me for not being interested enough in the laws of the country I live in. lol
Design right only applies to the shape and configuration (how different parts of a design are arranged together) of objects.
Which'd easily apply to a PC case (placement of IO, HDD cages, ventilation meshes etc), surely?
Anyone ever see the Top Gear episode where Jeremy and James went to China? They spoke about Chinese companies blatantly ripping off BMW and Mini (possibly more) and those companies sued their Chinese counterparts and lost.
Not sure what Caselabs and Fractal can do in Asia, but elsewhere they might be able to have an injunction placed against ThermalTake elsewhere. Much like all the Apple and Samsung hooplah.
I think we have something similar but its much weaker. Now we do have something called tradedress (although it costs money and requires a lawyer) which give you the right to defend the look and feel of a product, but it works like a trademark so you HAVE to enforce every infringement, no matter how small, or risk losing it
Yup, that's the episode. And now I'm crying because no more Top Gear.
If you speak Mandarin:
If Fractal and Caselabs had a patent or tradedress on their products they could have the FTC implement trade embargoes on the infringing product thus banning the sale of those Thermaltake products in the US
Do they have stigs made in a factory?
That was a bit of a risky joke.
Statement from Thermaltake's Shannon Robb:
Not buying it. Figuratively and literally. Considering their track record for such actions.
Using his logic, since the vast majority of mass produced cars were the Model T, it's totally OK to rip off Ferrari.
Today is Hug Your Cat Day. My cat didn't get the message. I'm now bleeding.
Where I fall on this issue: I've had sometime to think over this. Do the outside of the products look similar? Sure but the inside could be different. A lot of PC cases on the outside look similar but on the inside they have different features. Do a lot of Thermaltake products look similar to other companies? Sure but their performance and internals could be different. Do I think it's bad that Thermaltake looks similar to Caselabs? Yes but that isn't going to stop me from enjoying Caselabs products. I can still buy from them. They still have their solid reputation. I'm not going to change what I wrote in the past here. I may have overreacted in some parts. I will try to be more calm and logical about this in the future. That is all I have to say on this issue.
Common practice in manufactuering. This is the reason people have patents, trademarks, and lawyers. I would have had my lawyer write the response.
This is such a terrible response in so many ways. If I was management at Thermaltake, I would've suggested him to just not comment at all until they could release something with much more PR massaging done to it. This provides no examples of how the case designs differ or any insight as to how they arrived at their design choice.
I wonder if they will do their own review of the Shuanhuan S-CEO HBJ6474Y
There are only so many ways you can use 6 corners and metal
Do I care about either of the cases? No, not really.
"Imitation blah blah flattery bluh bleh", "free press this, beehive minds that".
Fact is that they look very much alike from the outside. And so do cheap iPhone knock-offs from China. Are they the same quality? No. Are they "totally different" because they don't share anything else besides the look? On the inside yes, on the outside no.
My stand on this topic is that if you use the design and recognition value of someone else's product you're just lazy and cheap. Come up with your own design people will like and associate quality with.
And if what JayzTwoCents said about Thermaltake on the last TechTalk is true, then I don't have any intention of buying a Thermaltake product in the future.
I don't know if any of you watch TechTalk on Jayz channel. 78 Where Jerry is at the movies.
Well Josh from Fractal is on, and he just does note care really. He figures there are only so many ways a case can look, so it was only a matter of time until the designs all looked the same.
Jayz fucking icon for his channel is so goddamn ugly, the smug expression, the blown up head, the fucking plaid shirt. Ugh. It's the most punchable fucking face I've ever seen.
Bad rant. Sorry.
