[powertower]

> manufacturing fairly high-tech products. We haven't had any of the problems you describe.

Only because of the nature of your product...

It's all about the product type, its price range, and the availability of reaching the customers.

A US company that made a general consumer-level (non-pro) 1 milligram scale (e.g., accurate on the weight to within 1-3mg) outsourced its manufacturing to China, which then had the same production lines make 2x the order, placed its own brand/sticker on the additional units, got it into the US, and had the various distributors provide it at a price that was 80% less than the company was selling them.

I bought one off Amazon. Why pay $200 when I can pay $20-$40?

If this is legal or not it does not matter - if it can be done it will be done.

In your case, the time is not just right. But the moment when everything aligns and they think they can compete with you...

[No1]

I'm curious - which scale was ripped off?

[contingencies]

So what do you want, patents?

[nakedrobot2]

Patents won't save you. Trademarks can help you prevent imports like this, but nothing will ever stop your product from being sold in other places, especially mainland china.

[contingencies]

Right, so ... you've just re-iterated my point. Whinging about the nature of reality aint gonna change it.

[nakedrobot2]

No, my point is you need to find people who won't steal from you, not because you have patents, but because they're not scumbags. Going to Shenzhen, the odds are very much stacked against you with this.

[contingencies]

Do small fly-by-night factories care about reputation? No, probably not. Does having your stuff produced elsewhere given this reality protect against its copying? No. Realistically, we just have to recognize that the exclusive right to produce something does not exist, except as vaguely enforced at retail through certain developed markets' monopoly-assisting enforcement arrangements... if you have enough dosh for lawyers to back it up. From a business standpoint, the cold hard truth is that producing anything physical is more about the object's distribution and marketing than the design and production, which can be monopolized only temporarily.