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Another Asian Repro Co

SteveZ

One of the Regulars
Messages
192
Go to any trade show, regardless of type of products, and your chances of some little Asian guy or gal taking very close up pictures of the latest products being introduced to buyers is excellent. Before those products ever hit the store shelves, chance are very good that there will be knock offs being sold already long before we see them in stores.

These days, many patents arent worth the paper their written on.
 

zebedee

One Too Many
Messages
1,900
Location
Shanghai
Go to any trade show and the chances of some little guy or gal of any racial persuasion taking pictures is high. It isn't solely an Asian thing. Copyright theft afflicts Asian companies in the same way that if affects overseas companies. You spend time anywhere in the world and there are knock-offs, often- shock, horror- not produced by Asians. In the case we are talking about, the guy seems genuinely surprised, has amended his website and was not using the same brand name. Let's not tar an entire continent with the same brush.
 
Messages
234
Location
Northern California
personally, morally I think it is still wrong to copy names and patterns even from a defunct company...
without stating somewhere on the product it is "a replica of" and giving proper credit to the original design owner right there on the product or on a piece of paper coming with the product.
just my personal view...

I hear what you're saying but I also believe this would make things a little too easy. 30 years later I still purchase a copy here and there of various items and it's part of an ongoing learning process in my hunt for all military items in general. I've spent a lot money on books previous to the vast research resources on the internet, countless conversations with experts, not to mention shows attended and endless hours of picking. I think to have a label stating reproduction cheapens the efforts put into such items and is not much different than Antiques Road Show or Pawn Stars. With all of the other things that easily make everyone an expert the hobby is so flooded now that everyone and his brother is stepping on my toes these days. Moreover, as a reproducer of theater made patches (no company name) I've been reprimanded by many that I should mark my work with the same type of safety net for the unknowing. From my patches to JC's jackets, anyone who's paid their dues can tell the difference or at the very least knows who to ask before dropping a lot of money on something. If they don't, then they've learned a very expensive lesson that could've been avoided with little effort. Anyone buying this stuff should be well aware of reproductions or shouldn't be in the hobby. Just my opinion but as an avid collector.

My patches are based on theater made examples from WW2 CBI, or China, Burma, India Theater of Operations. I'm in the process of having a stamp made in the form of a Chinese Chop. This was an official seal usually carved out of wood so it couldn't be duplicated easily. Once my translator gets back to me with my name phonetically pronounced in WW2 Mandarin along with "Made in the U.S.", It's off to a stamp maker. I'll be stamping the backs of all my patches but not really as an identifier of reproduction as much as a cool way to sign my work. For the totally clueless, my new chop may even seal the deal for them as truly authentic because it's in Chinese (no pun intended) But anyone with at least half a clue knows that theater made patches weren't marked with a chop. I'm not about to slap a label on them to save the lazy from learning their stuff.
 

Superfluous

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,995
Location
Missing in action
Go to any trade show and the chances of some little guy or gal of any racial persuasion taking pictures is high. It isn't solely an Asian thing. Copyright theft afflicts Asian companies in the same way that if affects overseas companies. You spend time anywhere in the world and there are knock-offs, often- shock, horror- not produced by Asians. In the case we are talking about, the guy seems genuinely surprised, has amended his website and was not using the same brand name. Let's not tar an entire continent with the same brush.

Amen!
 

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