ebay fake whirlwind hoses, advice please
Discussion
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271537894484?_trksid=p20...
A seller on ebay is selling what appears to be a direct copy of my Whirlwind induction hoses. They're more expensive than my hoses and come with no clips or ecu chip by the looks of the wording.
What can I do about this? Obviously I'm not too happy .. but I obviously have no patent / copyright on the hoses as such .. except that these appear to be identical to mine.
If anyone has had any of these fitted I would love to take a look at a hose to see it side by side with the hoses I've been selling for the last 6 years or so. In fact if anyone has bought any I will remap your car for half price just to get my hands on a hose!!
Also what can I do except ask the seller and maker to stop selling them ? Can I even do that?
At the very least it's effing cheeky!
Anyone got any advice?
A seller on ebay is selling what appears to be a direct copy of my Whirlwind induction hoses. They're more expensive than my hoses and come with no clips or ecu chip by the looks of the wording.
What can I do about this? Obviously I'm not too happy .. but I obviously have no patent / copyright on the hoses as such .. except that these appear to be identical to mine.
If anyone has had any of these fitted I would love to take a look at a hose to see it side by side with the hoses I've been selling for the last 6 years or so. In fact if anyone has bought any I will remap your car for half price just to get my hands on a hose!!
Also what can I do except ask the seller and maker to stop selling them ? Can I even do that?
At the very least it's effing cheeky!
Anyone got any advice?
- nuke from orbit is sadly not an option ..
Edited by spitfire4v8 on Friday 1st August 09:38
Thanks all, ad updated ..
I need to get my hands on a hose so that I can take an internal silicone moulding .. It seems from the link kindly provided above by greenracing that 3D shapes have an implied design protection but that something that needs to fit in a particular way (ie has to be a certain shape and cannot be changed) doesn't.
The pipes obviously do have to fit the airbox at one end and inlet at the other, but the route between can be any shape you choose, so on that basis I would say the 3D shaping of the short pipes between the end fixings is a protected design.
If anyone has any of these ebay pipes I would love to borrow one and take an internal moulding .. pipes are wound onto a former during production and therefore taking an internal mould will tell me the shape of the former being used. If it turns out to be the same as mine then that's a copied design.
many thanks.
I need to get my hands on a hose so that I can take an internal silicone moulding .. It seems from the link kindly provided above by greenracing that 3D shapes have an implied design protection but that something that needs to fit in a particular way (ie has to be a certain shape and cannot be changed) doesn't.
The pipes obviously do have to fit the airbox at one end and inlet at the other, but the route between can be any shape you choose, so on that basis I would say the 3D shaping of the short pipes between the end fixings is a protected design.
If anyone has any of these ebay pipes I would love to borrow one and take an internal moulding .. pipes are wound onto a former during production and therefore taking an internal mould will tell me the shape of the former being used. If it turns out to be the same as mine then that's a copied design.
many thanks.
ukkid35 said:
In fact the water hose kit is not a copy of the ACT set, as the top rad hose is a simple 90deg hose, rather than the correct more complex shape sold by ACT.
I agree with others Joolz, your best defense is to promote your kit as the real deal, and by offering the option of the generic map or custom map, I doubt you'll lose much business. After all this is a very small community, there can't be more than 1,000 running AJPs left can there?
Absolutely I agree with others Joolz, your best defense is to promote your kit as the real deal, and by offering the option of the generic map or custom map, I doubt you'll lose much business. After all this is a very small community, there can't be more than 1,000 running AJPs left can there?
yep and you don't have to dig far to find they've bought from ebay seller auto performance, the ebay presence of ASH hoses. Whether that is significant right now though I don't know.
Thing is, to make hoses you need a mould, so someone has paid for a mould to be made to make the hoses. I have had 3 moulds, one is with the manufacturer I first used who were great but very slow getting things made. I stopped ordering from them but they still had my mould (i paid for it though so technically it's still mine)
I have had two more moulds made but one went missing which stopped production of my own hoses a while ago whilst another mould was made,or the original found, I don't know which.
These moulds are 250 pounds each, so no small money when the total sales of the product are so low. I've spent 750 pounds on moulds so far so you can understand why I'm a bit peeved when someone starts up with something that looks so similar ..
I'll come to the unusual ebay feedback later ..
Thing is, to make hoses you need a mould, so someone has paid for a mould to be made to make the hoses. I have had 3 moulds, one is with the manufacturer I first used who were great but very slow getting things made. I stopped ordering from them but they still had my mould (i paid for it though so technically it's still mine)
I have had two more moulds made but one went missing which stopped production of my own hoses a while ago whilst another mould was made,or the original found, I don't know which.
These moulds are 250 pounds each, so no small money when the total sales of the product are so low. I've spent 750 pounds on moulds so far so you can understand why I'm a bit peeved when someone starts up with something that looks so similar ..
I'll come to the unusual ebay feedback later ..
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