Of course, from the Russian point of view they invented the telephone, the TV and so on.
But this brings up a significant point. Nations due not wholly agree on intellectual property.
First you have to divide the topic into three - patents, trademarks, and copyright.
Then you have to take them on individually.
1. Patents - I believe that Japan does not (or did not until recent years) recognize anything that wasn't first patented in Japan. You had to get your Japanese patent first to be truly recognized globally. Of course, the other options are to not sell to Japan or keep your idea as a 'trade secret' if that it is at all possible.
2. Trademarks - I am not sure of the various countries standards on this, but it appears that in Hong Kong there is far greater latitude than in US. The same is likely through out Southeast Asia.
3. Copyright - This is the huge battle ground with software, in particular OSes, and movies. In Taiwan, it is legal to copy up to one-third of a book that is protected by copyright. But of course, that just makes it harder to catch the two other guys that are copying the other thirds that are delivered to a fourth guy with the binding equipment. The US has quite different views on this issue, but it has gotten much harder to get complete illegal copies of texts and software. On the other hand, nobody in their right mind would bother with a full price DVD as Pirate Bay delivers world-wide.
And so, owning intellectual property pretty much requires one to decide how much of the world they want to sell too and defend.
It just isn't a perfect world.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Ain't gadetry a wonderful thing?
I have to disagree with pretty much your entire post.
I don't see any Trademark, Copyright or Patent issues here so I don't understand the charge of Piracy against SparkFun. It does not seem fair or justified. All I see is a desperate attempt to protect a particular manufacture from the hassle of having competitors for some reason or other. Which also does not seem fair or justified.
So now SparkFun is selling Hakko 936 imitations and they are even putting their logo on it - they think that it is perfectly okay to profit from selling this copy.
So. Many products for sale in this modern world are copies of others. Made in China or not. Sparkfun even clearly point out that this is NOT a Hakko 936.
There are however many items that are available from other places. This iron is a good example. Hakko created this iron and sells it at a reasonable price. Some Chinese company has duplicated it and sells it for much less. There can be no doubt that they are taking business away from Hakko and there will be many people buying this copy without realizing that it is a copy.
So your issue is that we are tempted to buy things from China rather than elsewhere. Do you have a downer on China? Are you suggesting that consumers should spend more than they have to for the same goods just out of some moral duty to give work to one group of humans than an other? That does not seem fair to me. Not to the humans who are trying to compete nor to those who are having to pay more. This kind of controlled ecconomy used to be communism and was generally derided as a system that does not work.
So many people only care that they can save a few dollars and it is of no concern to them where the money goes, or wether or not the right people are being paid for their work.
In a free market economy, capitalism, as opposed to the command economy, communism, people expect to be able to spend their own money where they choose. Now perhaps as an individual I choose to buy a locally produced product at a higher price for some moral or patriotic reason. However in general I don't believe that some dictator should decide for me who "the right people are" that I should pay for thier work.
Parallax, please don't go down that road. I believe SparkFun is setting a bad example to so many young people who will one day be making similar business decisions.
I don't believe there is any such bad example being set. Sparkfun are being quite open and honest about what is on offer. A good business decision by a young person might be to purchase the cheaper version rather than squander the profits of his labours on the expensive.
Everyone else, consider where your money is going, who is profiting
How should I determine where my money goes, in general it's impossible to know and life is too short to "follow the" money in all my purchasing decisions.
...the message you are sending when you make a purchase.
When I purchase something the message is always the same. It's an agreement about the value of that product as determined by me. If consumers buy cheaper then prices are driven down. The possibility of price gouging and unfair profits is reduced. That's how capitalism works. It is something the western world has ben striving for for decades.
Buy cheap, buy often. Buy quality, buy once.
OK. I agree here. In many cases that is true.
I'd just like to point out that the Hakko 936 ESD Soldering Station is now a discontinued item. Perhaps it's as well we can buy an equivalent elsewhere.
Lots of sturm und drang for a subject that dustbinned last summer.
All I've ever bought from SparkFun (a/k/a "arduina-r-us") are 28pin
SSOP breakout boards - for use with a certain discontinued
microcontroller (irony of ironies.)
Comments
But this brings up a significant point. Nations due not wholly agree on intellectual property.
First you have to divide the topic into three - patents, trademarks, and copyright.
Then you have to take them on individually.
1. Patents - I believe that Japan does not (or did not until recent years) recognize anything that wasn't first patented in Japan. You had to get your Japanese patent first to be truly recognized globally. Of course, the other options are to not sell to Japan or keep your idea as a 'trade secret' if that it is at all possible.
2. Trademarks - I am not sure of the various countries standards on this, but it appears that in Hong Kong there is far greater latitude than in US. The same is likely through out Southeast Asia.
3. Copyright - This is the huge battle ground with software, in particular OSes, and movies. In Taiwan, it is legal to copy up to one-third of a book that is protected by copyright. But of course, that just makes it harder to catch the two other guys that are copying the other thirds that are delivered to a fourth guy with the binding equipment. The US has quite different views on this issue, but it has gotten much harder to get complete illegal copies of texts and software. On the other hand, nobody in their right mind would bother with a full price DVD as Pirate Bay delivers world-wide.
And so, owning intellectual property pretty much requires one to decide how much of the world they want to sell too and defend.
It just isn't a perfect world.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Ain't gadetry a wonderful thing?
aka G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan
I have to disagree with pretty much your entire post.
I don't see any Trademark, Copyright or Patent issues here so I don't understand the charge of Piracy against SparkFun. It does not seem fair or justified. All I see is a desperate attempt to protect a particular manufacture from the hassle of having competitors for some reason or other. Which also does not seem fair or justified.
So. Many products for sale in this modern world are copies of others. Made in China or not. Sparkfun even clearly point out that this is NOT a Hakko 936.
So your issue is that we are tempted to buy things from China rather than elsewhere. Do you have a downer on China? Are you suggesting that consumers should spend more than they have to for the same goods just out of some moral duty to give work to one group of humans than an other? That does not seem fair to me. Not to the humans who are trying to compete nor to those who are having to pay more. This kind of controlled ecconomy used to be communism and was generally derided as a system that does not work.
In a free market economy, capitalism, as opposed to the command economy, communism, people expect to be able to spend their own money where they choose. Now perhaps as an individual I choose to buy a locally produced product at a higher price for some moral or patriotic reason. However in general I don't believe that some dictator should decide for me who "the right people are" that I should pay for thier work.
I don't believe there is any such bad example being set. Sparkfun are being quite open and honest about what is on offer. A good business decision by a young person might be to purchase the cheaper version rather than squander the profits of his labours on the expensive.
How should I determine where my money goes, in general it's impossible to know and life is too short to "follow the" money in all my purchasing decisions.
When I purchase something the message is always the same. It's an agreement about the value of that product as determined by me. If consumers buy cheaper then prices are driven down. The possibility of price gouging and unfair profits is reduced. That's how capitalism works. It is something the western world has ben striving for for decades.
OK. I agree here. In many cases that is true.
I'd just like to point out that the Hakko 936 ESD Soldering Station is now a discontinued item. Perhaps it's as well we can buy an equivalent elsewhere.
Bottom line is:
Caveat emptor.
All I've ever bought from SparkFun (a/k/a "arduina-r-us") are 28pin
SSOP breakout boards - for use with a certain discontinued
microcontroller (irony of ironies.)