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SparkFun: We Hear You

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Re: SparkFun: We Hear You

#51

Post by bfrog »

lrem wrote: post #5
seszett wrote: post #2

It's a bit of a shame that Fluke uses Facebook for publishing official statements. Other than that... well, good reaction from Fluke. I'd say all events, from seizing the multimeters to the resolution today, unfolded in the best way possible.

Apart from the part where the law turned out to be so broken to make it happen...

Its not broken if you consider it protecting the companies of the united states from knock offs. That company that made those multimeters had the full rainbow of colors and an infinite choice of shapes, dials, displays to choose from. They basically decided fluke was great, copied almost everything, sold it cheaper.

If it were your product, which was a high quality product, and some cheap knock offs came in with basically everything the same but the label... you would not be happy.

Re: SparkFun: We Hear You

#52

Post by bsder »

mindslight wrote: post #24
vailripper wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't they dilute their brand? They've built up a reputation of building a high end product. If someone begins selling a product that looks nearly identical to their own, that's of inferior quality, how does that not affect their own reputation?

Because professional engineers choose test equipment based on functionality , and color schemes fall pretty low on the list. (yeah, this may be hard to believe if you have a primarily software background)

Professional engineers aren't the only people buying multimeters. Lots of people who work as electricians and wiring techs also buy multimeters, and many of them do buy by brand which is, conveniently, color scheme.

Re: SparkFun: We Hear You

#53

Post by bch »

dublinben wrote: post #44
jmathai wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to be logged in to view the post.

You still have to visit facebook.

It hasn't been explicitly stated yet, and may not be apparent to everyone, but it's blocked in some networks. It's not just a case of "I despise Facebook so much I refuse to visit it."

Re: SparkFun: We Hear You

#54

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

larrys wrote: post #36
thaumaturgy wrote: post #12

Wow, what an amazing and generous response from Fluke. I can't remember a better response from a company, ever, in a trademark / patent / copyright / licensing dispute. And it's all written in straightforward language without a lot of marketingese.

"what an amazing and generous response from Fluke" Agree. And curious what the PR value will be vs. the cost of goods for Fluke (which is their cost, not the wholesale and/or selling price). Personally I think it's unfortunate that they needed, in this day and age of social media, to have to bogu on this situation and get out in front of this issue by doing this. Of course by what I say in the first paragaph it may v…

I was really surprised and impressed not only with their response, but also with how quickly they responded.

I've already spent a few thousand dollars on Fluke equipment this year, and could imagine spending a few thousand more before the year is up. I'm a small customer. It wouldn't take many like me to make up for ~30k worth of stuff.

Re: SparkFun: We Hear You

#56

Post by jzwinck »

revelation wrote: post #50
johansch wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A nicer solution could have been: Fluke: "We'll swap your 2000 chinese multimeters with 2000 Fluke multimeters. We will send the non-fluke multimeters to under-funded universities in africa/asia/wherever."

Are you trying to get people in africa/asia/wherever killed? If touching it can kill you, I wouldn't go anywhere near it with a 15 bucks meter. And for everything else, the sheer terribleness of these will soon annoy you into buying something usable.

Poor people may not be able to buy expensive equipment. It may be that having worse equipment is better than none. We shouldn't always apply the same level of "if one person gets hurt it is unacceptable" protectionism to other societies.

Re: SparkFun: We Hear You

#57

Post by jzwinck »

mindslight wrote: post #46
cjensen wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As Fluke said, they want customers to know that if a product appears to be a Fluke, then they can safely use it in a high-voltage environment. The implication is that no, they are not going to permit them to enter the US. It's very classy of them to make Sparkfun whole.

As I said, Sparkfun could rework them domestically to change their appearance, avoiding destruction and avoiding sending them back to China. Also, does anyone have tips on how to get the smell out after accidentally using an overripe banana to "test" my breaker panel? I thought checking the color would be sufficiently safe :/

Try an orange box of white powder. Or spray an aerosol can with a floral color at it.

Re: SparkFun: We Hear You

#58

Post by fancyketchup »

mindslight wrote: post #46
cjensen wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As Fluke said, they want customers to know that if a product appears to be a Fluke, then they can safely use it in a high-voltage environment. The implication is that no, they are not going to permit them to enter the US. It's very classy of them to make Sparkfun whole.

As I said, Sparkfun could rework them domestically to change their appearance, avoiding destruction and avoiding sending them back to China. Also, does anyone have tips on how to get the smell out after accidentally using an overripe banana to "test" my breaker panel? I thought checking the color would be sufficiently safe :/

The great thing about comments like this one are that they help me identify whose opinion not to take seriously in the future.

Not being able to distinguish the difference between copying multiple distinctive elements of trade dress (yellow back AND yellow front border AND uniform grey front) and inadvertently using a particular color anywhere on the product is really quite an amazing feat.

Re: SparkFun: We Hear You

#59

Post by salgernon »

jmathai wrote: post #33
mixologic wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook isn't the web. Its a siloed private service. A company the size and reputation of Fluke should have their very own website that they can put messages like that on. Otherwise, they're merely giving facebook revenue by having that many more pageview opportunities to show everybody ads.

You don't need to be logged in to view the post.

This has been true for this post, but there have been many "view this on facebook" posts that do block you with a signup.

Twitter seems to do this too (frequently I'm prompted to log in.)

Bah, I want my ye olde internet back.

Re: SparkFun: We Hear You

#60

Post by pmorici »

It's kind of silly that you can trademark a color like that. Maybe Sparkfun should have Fluke's red meters stopped at the border because they are red, the color associated with the Sparkfun brand. It probably doesn't make business sense for them to do that though.

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/tten/Digital-Multimeters/Specialt...

Fluke's entry level meter is $130 on Amazon maybe they should make a less expensive model for Sparkfun to sell to the makers.

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