61–70 of 160 posts
It would be interesting to see SparkFun introduce their products with their own red color to brand hobbyist equipment as its own segment—compliment Fluke's reliance on color to connote the primary qualities of the brand. Red = accessible, versatile hobbyist equipment Yellow = rugged, reliable industrial equipment Great response from Fluke nonetheless.
http://www.fluke.com/fluke/tten/Digital-Multimeters/Specialt...
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."
Why in the world would/should Fluke give away ~$800,000 worth of product (that sparkfun would make a ton of money off of) because someone decided to violate their trademark and paid the price for it? We're talking about 2,000 vastly inferior multimeters here. You may or may not agree with the trademark being issued in the first place, but it was, and I don't blame fluke for wanting to protect their brand. They make a…
I've seen a lot more than that spent on marketing stunts, except in this case the consumers actually benefit by getting better equipment.
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 f…
It is a trademark, or trade dress registration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_dress
If you make agricultural equipment and paint it a bright green and yellow; John Deere will come after you because at least some people might get the impression that you are at the least trying to take advantage of their reputation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Some very good examples of this principle:
http://mackys.livejournal.com/838591.html?nojs=1
http://www.afrigadget.com/2010/02/28/jua-kali-dressed-in-mit...
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 f…
It's not a patent. It is a trademark, or trade dress registration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_dress If you make agricultural equipment and paint it a bright green and yellow; John Deere will come after you because at least some people might get the impression that you are at the least trying to take advantage of their reputation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Baby steps. You can't expect massive changes overnight in such a complex system. Fluke did a solid AND the trademark system is broken; both are news.
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."
So then, nothing to be done about the needless destruction of the shipment of meters by customs? As Sparkfun said, Fluke could easily issue a temporary license to prevent that draconian waste. If they think those meters are actually going to dilute their brand (hint: they really aren't), then make the importation license require Sparkfun to rework the meters domestically before distributing them.
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.
The argument about trademark needs to stand on its own, without the argument that the current owners of a trademark are going some safety critical job.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.