Has the world gone mad? Part....I don't know I've lost count
Heater.
Posts: 21,230
Sparkfun has to destroy a ton of multi-meters because they are yellow!
Heater.
Posts: 21,230
Comments
Moved to General.
How can you copyright colors?
-Phil
http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/11/07/analysis-apple-got-a-design-patent-on-the-shape-of-the-ipad-and-it-probably-doesnt-matter/
Note to Ken for selecting the yellow color of S3!
-Phil
As Phil correctly points out, and this isn't legal advice, it's not the color anyone can trademark, but how that color may be applied in commerce for similar goods or services. Obviously, UPS's trademark applies to other freight companies that try to pass themselves off as UPS by also using the brown color scheme. I'm still allowed to wear brown pants and shoes. (I stopped wearing white shoes in 1973.)
Gotta feel for Sparkfun, but looking at the product I'd say it was just another try from a Chinese factory to capitalize on someone else's business. It's obvious the color choice is to make it look like a Fluke meter. Sparkfun should really have known better.
To me it's all so dumb. . The quality you can get for a $15 meter is probably the real issue a
Surely this is prior art to the Trademark of 2000 ???
When I see a yellow meter I automatically think of fluke.
They could of chosen any color so why did they choose yellow or a shade so close so close to fluke.
The problem isn't so much that they are selling less expensive items, it's that they are selling items painstakingly set to mimic a more expensive brand item.
So they got called out on it and caught this time.
Consider what happens with shoddy knockoffs. Does anyone remember the "exploding Dell laptops" situation? Well that headline is false: it got pinned to Dell, but those were really counterfeit or shoddy batteries which had the tendency to immolate its host.
So what if there was ever an "exploding fluke meters" situation? Even though these aren't fluke meters, but people would treat them as such because of their look. And it would go further in guilt by association... oh man those crappy yellow meters, one melted down and nearly took out my house, etc....
I really want to be free from crappy chinese knockoffs when it matters. These are too close to a brand that is generally trusted to deliver what they (Expensively) sell.
[/h][h=4]Fluke has it's own quality problems:
Fluke 11x Series Multimeter Recall[/h]Fluke is voluntarily recalling certain 113, 114, 115, 116 and 117 Digital Multimeters that were manufactured between 12/28/2013 and 1/16/2014.[h=4]Fluke 190 ScopeMeter® Recall[/h]Fluke is voluntarily recalling its 190 Series ScopeMeter®100MHz and 200MHz 4 Channel Hand Held Oscilloscopes that contain firmware version V10.40. This includes all units manufactured between February 5, 2012 and April 3rd 2012.[h=4]Fluke 28 II Ex Digital Multimeter Recall[/h]Fluke is voluntarily recalling certain 28 II Ex Intrinsically Safe True-rms Digital Multimeters that were manufactured between July 1, 2012 and November 30, 2012.[h=4]Fluke 37X Clamp Meter Recall[/h]Fluke is voluntarily recalling certain 373, 374, 375 and 376 Digital Clamp Meters that were manufactured between September 1, 2010 and October 31, 2012.
Making your cheap disposable look like the trademarked industry icon is not cool. Fluke spent a lot of money building their reputation, and you can't expect them to sit still while someone sells "Just like us but CHEAPER" product that is not just like us.
While there are crazy aspects to copyright law as it's being exercised by certain entities, this is not one of them. I love Sparkfun's products and I do business with them regularly. But they should have known better.
Just because a meter is yellow and black does NOT mean they are trying to "fool" people into thinking it is a fluke.
Now if made it yellow and black AND called it a floke meter...Them I am with you that it is a trying to "fool" people. But just the colors alone is going too far in my book.
If you are stupid enough to think that any meter that is yellow and black is a fluke, then that is your fault.
Bean
Exactly, Would really you want a tech that can't tell the difference between a cheap no frills meter and a Fluke meter working on your equipment? Probably not!!
Spark Fun should put a new name on the meters and call them " No Fluke" or " NOFluke" or NOKLUF :cool:
Again, for those posters who bandy the word "copyright", copyright has NOTHING to do with this case.
-Phil
YES, the world has gone mad.
Center, my friend.
It was pretty good though right?
I wish I had saved a copy of that monumental masterpiece.
However that makes no sense to me.
Looking around I see that most mid-range cars today look pretty much the same and share very similar colours no matter who manufactured them. How would it be if car colours were protected under trademark like this story suggests?
What about all those tractors and bulldozers and diggers that tend to be yellow regardless of manufacturer.
And so on.
Clearly trademark protection and rules to prevent counterfeiting and customer deception are desirable. But this seems a step way to far to me.
Those Chinese and other manufacturers will obviously push "copying" as far as they can, sometimes up to the point where they copy the quality as well:)
By the way, like Clusso, I have a few cheap black multi-meters from China sporting those removable rubbery yellow jackets. They have been available all over the world for at least a decade. I cannot justify paying such huge amounts for a FLUKE just to make the measurement in the ranges I do and with the accuracy I do.
At some point these regulations end up hurting the consumer rather than helping.
Has the world gone mad? Maybe so. The absurdity of it all is that these corporate economic moat is built on a foundation of 'homeland security'.
It is a pity to see where 'crony capitalism' is leading us. --
The 'crony captalism' is being reinforced by multinational corporations that can dodge from country to country while real resident business people are tied down to ever more capricious rules.
Want to know what 'crony capitalism' is? Read this week's Economist for a discussion of how it is affecting the world.
Fluke can go suck eggs. What was once a superior product has morphed into a predator.
UPS has trademarked the color BROWN.
Smuckers (our hometown pride here in Orrville, OH) has patented the PB&J with crust removed.
KING.COM (maker of time wasting Candy Crush) has trademarked the word, CANDY.
Personally I think Caterpillar, Inc should get involved as those meters look more like "Caterpillar Yellow" to me.
Maybe they could override this whole mess and allow Sparkfun to import those meters with permission to use their color.
These 'so-called' trademark colors are rather absurd as the original premise of a trademark is that the more specific and unique it is, the better it is to defend. The courts favor logos and such that are unique.
Color is an abstraction at best, especially when you have that 'The Department of Homeland Security' acting in an administrative role and blocking the inflow of vast quantities of goods that are obviously not similar to the trademark product except for color.
By the logic in the letter, I suppose that Ford could have all black import cars destroyed or returned. After all, the first Fords were only in black. That seems to establish it as Ford's trademark color.
Also, I forget which company it was but one of the engineers had an old Fluke where the multifunction switch died. The part was no longer available so he had to junk and otherwise functioning meter.
Flukes are not cheap but I think you are better off buying a used USA made model than a new one from China. For all you know they come from the same factory that makes the cheaper than dirt models.
Phil, I will have to disagree with you, all US currency is the same shape, size and color, but somehow no one has a problem looking at the sequence of digits to tell a 1 dollar bill from a 20 dollar bill.
Bean
Nobody has trouble reading a sequence of characters on a Fluke multimeter to tell which model it is either. But what makes it instantly recognizable as a Fluke is the color scheme. That's what Fluke is trying to protect: the instant brand recognition.
Shape is the same thing. Nobody has trouble reading "Coca Cola" on a Coke bottle. But it's the bottle's trademarked shape that makes it uniquely recognizable.
-Phil
Here's a Fluke:
Same colors but different color scheme. Apparently that's enough of a distinction.
And here's the one from Sparkfun:
There's a definite attempt to emulate the Fluke scheme methinks.
-Phil