Re: DO NOT BUY these items...
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tburkes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">they're reaching out to a customer base that is more concerned about price rather than the highest quality they can get.
my bags are not patented, like the guy asked. I told him there's a difference between legal and right</div></div>
Tony - well done for calling them out!
Their excuses are lame and predictable.
I do not understand why they don't license products and then brand them as others have said (I think Brownells do this judging by the AR Multitasker 2 I've got from them?) or negotiate a volume purchase agreement with you guys. That would be a far more ethical way to do busines.
Just greed I suppose!
A shame that you could only get to talk to a sales rep and not perhaps someone with real clout in their organisation.
But my guess is that they won't give a f*ck about TAB, Red Tac or Triad because you would find it next to impossible to take them to court....
Bottom line is that they are thieving unprincipled bastards and anyone who recognises that fact should stop spending with them immediatley!
Do you guys have on-line petitions in the US? They are becoming popular over here.
There's a lot of members on this forum and I am sure that you have additional customer databases for your individual businesses.
I'd be happy to sign a petition stating that Midway are ruining livliehoods and jobs in the US as well as acting in an unethical way.....
And I'm also sure that there are other businesses who find themselves in the same position as you.
Also, although you may not have been able to afford patents for your design, they are not the only solution.
It may be worth checking out whether you have any rights on intellectual property or international copyright?
I'd be buying (or obtaining by other means) one of each design they have stolen and take it apart/measure it to see if it has been reverse engineered from your original patterns. There may be many ways to make a rear bag...but the chances of two differnt manufacturers using exactly the same pattern must be open to question???
We have done the same recently, not under patent protection but under some international copyright protection (I'd need to get the exact details from our Production Director) and effectively stopped a counterfeit/copy operation from making/advertising anything that looks the same as our products they were pirating....
This kind of thread always reminds me of John Ruskin's words:
<span style="color: #000099"><span style="font-style: italic">"There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person's lawful prey.
It is unwise to pay too much, but it is also unwise to pay too little.
When you pay too much, you lose a little money, that is all.
When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought is incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot... It can't be done.
If you deal with the lowest bidder it is well to add something for the risk you run.
And if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better." </span></span>
Sadly, as long as there are people out there who do not heed or understand these words, there will be guys to supply them!
