fluke, you make neat stuff, but really you r killing sparkfun

[firehopper]

https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428

apparently you cant have a dark colored meter with a yellow border without the usa saying no, you cant bring that into the usa.

[electronics man]

How the hell can they trademark a colour, bloody fluke https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428

[c4757p]

They didn't trademark a color, Sparkfun's post is misleading.

Description of Mark

The mark consists of the colors dark gray and yellow as applied to the goods. The dotted outline of the goods is intended to show the position of the mark and is not a part of the mark.

Rather, the overall "color scheme" is trademarked: grey body with yellow border. And frankly, I agree with them. That's the "Fluke look". Everyone knows that's what a Fluke DMM looks like, and everyone knows that the cheapo multimeters that also use that scheme are trying to imitate them.

Also:

Wicked burden on small business:
Trademark law is heavily skewed towards large business. Small business does not have the resources to stay abreast of all trademarks for all the products they don’t carry. If you’re going to put the onus on the little guy to avoid infringing IP then you shouldn’t need an army of consultants or attorneys to find this information. We will lose $30,000 on this shipment. But the cost of the legal legwork and manpower to make sure we don’t violate a future color seems unreasonable and simply not feasible.

That an importer has to make sure the products they import comply with local laws is nothing new. Anyone even vaguely familiar with trademark law should have a big ol' red flag raised upon seeing that DMM. The fact that Sparkfun is importing things from a country well known for knockoffs and yet doesn't have anybody on hand who's even vaguely familiar with IP law is a bit - well, OK, unsurprising, but still, not good.

[DL8RI]

So, whats next? Having a Display in the upper region and a round range-knob makes the "Fluke-look"?
Quite "Apple-ish"

[c4757p]

So, whats next? Having a Display in the upper region and a round range-knob makes the "Fluke-look"?

No, I think you'll find they exercised discretion here and only trademarked the bit that actually makes people think of Fluke. Not everything is a "slippery slope".

[ErikTheNorwegian]

Isnt it Department of Homeland Security/TOBIGBULLYBROTHER that is making the fuz her? Not Fluke..

[robrenz]

If I had a long term world wide reputation of quality that was readily recognized at a glance by most anyone familiar with my product line. And Chinese products were being made that benefit in various ways from looking like my product (implied quality) regardless of price. And I had taken reasonable steps (trademark/copyright etc.) to prevent that from occurring. I would want violating products stopped at the border also.

[Fsck]

How the hell can they trademark a colour, bloody fluke https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428

that doesn't seem much like a Fluke problem. It's more of a "American government is dumb and the patent system is broken" complaint.

But they really didn't have to make their meter yellow. Why not green or blue or black?

[saturation]

I agree with C47.  The rules can be simplified, at a glance, do those DMM appear similar?

If yes, then it violates Fluke's trademark.  That customs let it go past this long is actually a minus for Fluke.  You can easily get Fluke-a-look DMMs from Ebay and bypass customs most of the time.



If the maker chose any other color, as Agilent does, there's no mistaking the Agilent DMM are not a Fluke-a-look.  Its a reason they are so hot on establishing that orange color motif and insure the buttons are not all rectangular and in a line, to associate it with Agilent HH DMMs or at least disassociate it from Fluke.



In Asia, there is no control, the 1HL brands can go all out:

Taitan 15B+ vs the Fluke 15B:

http://en.taitan.net.cn/products_detail/&productId=8b51e244-713e-4313-8566-c6ca2e09c9a8.html



or the truly ballsy Ftike:

[Jay_Diddy_B]

Hi,
Here is something interesting. The Trademark has expired !!

From: http://www.usitc.gov/publications/337/pub4210.pdf

Here is part of the document:



Somebody should point this out to Sparkfun.

This is the same issue that Tektronix had. They switched from yellow to blue. But in this case Tektronix was sued by Fluke.

Jay_Diddy_B

[DL8RI]

Why yellow is easy. This thing is often used in the field. Therefore a good signal color.

That's something I don't like about my GMC, the dark green is like chamo.

[Excavatoree]

3M Kimberly-Clark has prevented any other company from making purple nitrile gloves.   3MKimberly-Clark  claims that people associate the purple color with their product, and other companies would be taking advantage of their reputation by offering purple gloves.  I guess they paid off enough people in the US government to make it happen.

EDIT - brain fart.  It was Kimberly Clark, not 3M.

[bookaboo]

At a trade show I once saw a Chinese company show off a like for like copy of a Fluke 199c. This thing was identical, I mean in every detail (well on the outside anyway), though you could tell it was fake as the material was similar to that used on cheap meters. It powered up and the screen looked nice, there was nothing on the stand to test it with unfortunately.

I can't recall the name of the company but they had a close relationship with Atten and shared a stand with them.

[Bored@Work]

a) That won't kill Sparkfun. Sparkfun is a multi-million dollar business. They just like to act as if they are a mom and pop shop.

b) It is in fact the size of the shipment that made them show up on the radar. 2000 multimeters in a single shipment is not what the typical mom and pop shop or single ebay seller imports in one shipment.

c) Sparkfun is acting stupid or they suddenly swallowed some stupidity pills. To quote
 

I don’t fully understand it

and

No recourse: Our multimeters are actually kind of orange, not Fluke yellow. The document from the Department of Homeland Security is matter of fact. Where is the opportunity for recourse? What is the appeals process?

If they don't know or don't understand they should get a lawyer.

d) Getting 2000 rubbish multimeters destroyed is a rather good thing in my book.

e) Sparkfun is lying.

We will lose $30,000

No, they won't. They sell the meters for $15, they don't buy them for $15.

[leppie]

Here is something interesting. The Trademark has expired !!

It was renewed.

[G7PSK]

Quick someone patent a device with a switch or switches and a display on the front for making measurements of voltages and every thing else.

[BravoV]

My personal view, Sparkfun deserved it, and I don't have any sympathy at all to them.

C'mon, its not like they noob in this electronics business, they "know and fully aware" of the business advantages of bringing this cheap knock-offs that looks like Fluke.

Hell, with that kind of attitude, trust me, its just the matter of time they will import these below "FUKE" if its good for their business, and when it comes to making money, Fluke has the right do make their life harder.

Kudos to Fluke. 

[Dongulus]

a) That won't kill Sparkfun. Sparkfun is a multi-million dollar business. They just like to act as if they are a mom and pop shop

It was my impression that Sparkfun saying "you're killing us" was just a figure of speech, not that this blow would financially ruin Sparkfun.

We will lose $30,000

No, they won't. They sell the meters for $15, they don't buy them for $15.

Opportunity cost. They've already paid for the multimeters regardless of whether or not they can sell them, but they were expecting to eventually receive $30,000 in the future by selling them off at $15 each. That is a real, tangible financial loss.

[electronics man]

The thing is they are not actively trying to be a fluke, they haven't got the actual fluke logo, its not going to hurt fluke nobody is going to by that DMM as a replacement for a fluke.

[sync]

The trademark thing is a bit silly. But why does Sparkfun sells DMMs which doesn't meet the safety rating? 

[c4757p]

The thing is they are not actively trying to be a fluke, they haven't got the actual fluke logo, its not going to hurt fluke nobody is going to by that DMM as a replacement for a fluke.

Trademark dilution

[electronics man]

But what I don't get is why are they punishing sparkfun for a falt of the manufacturer.

[c4757p]

Because it's not a fault of the manufacturer, they're Chinese and don't have to obey U.S. law. But when you import something into the U.S., you are responsible for making sure it obeys the laws here. That's how it's always been.

[BravoV]

But what I don't get is why are they punishing sparkfun for a falt of the manufacturer.

So if you imported narcotics into your country from South America manufacturer, its never your fault instead of those parties in South America, huh ?   

[FrankenPC]

What really pisses me off about this is the use of homeland security to enforce what is essentially a civil/corporate legal issue.  This has nothing to do with security.  I've noticed over the last decade that the manifold police forces in America are being hijacked by corporations to do their dirty work.  This is the purvey of lawyers, not the police.