The reason? Because SparkFun’s multimeters, yellow with dark grey fronts, too closely resembled Fluke’s trademarked color schemes.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Fluke, SparkFun, and a Crazy Case of Multimeter Trademark Infringement
The reason? Because SparkFun’s multimeters, yellow with dark grey fronts, too closely resembled Fluke’s trademarked color schemes.
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6 comments:
Wow that's kind of a bummer. Like the article mentioned, Sparkfun is an upstanding company with a great reputation. I know that I've ordered my fair share of DIY parts from them myself. It's too bad that their multimeter design was too similar to that of Fluke's. It seems like an honest mistake though, and I'm glad Fluke is very generously offering to donate equipment to make up for the loss.
As someone who has recently started using Sparkfun for my electronics needs I can say that I have been very pleased with them all around. This is why I believe that this was an honest mistake and that Sparkfun had no intention to infringe on the copyrights owned by Fluke. It is very interesting to hear that a company can buy the copyrights for colors like that, I did not know that before. One thing that this article doesn't mention is if there were any other striking similarities between the products. All in all, I'm glad that Fluke is trying to clear up the situation nicely.
Wow. This was a neat article, and I am pretty impressed with Flukes response. Instead of dragging out a legal battle or trying to financially harm Sparkfun, they offered them compensation in understanding of the likely accidental color choices. Good job Fluke, I'm impressed.
Some copyright stuff bothers me, but I totally get the importance of copyrighting color combinations. It's really annoying when knock off brands try to emulate originals. I feel bad for SparkFun, but I get why that happened to them. I'm really impressed by the way that Fluke responded to the issue. It was great of them to do that for SparkFun. It was a great way to help another company and also to show that they weren't just being rude about the situation.
What strikes me about this situation is not that Fluke patented their colors that that SparkFun made some similar ones is that if Fluke was not aware of the seizure, someone must have alerted customs of the "contraband" or the customs officials must have opened one of the boxes and said "Gee, these look awfully like these things that this other company makes" which seems odd to me. However, its very nice how the companies publicly resolved the dispute.
Wow this is an interesting situation. I mean, like the article said, Sparkfun is a very likable company, and I doubt that they intended to infringe on flukes IP. That being said, Sparkfun didn’t personally design and manufacture the meters. They likely hired a (probably overseas) company to put these kits together, and that third party almost definitely intended to manufacture a lookalike.
I think there’s a bigger issue here, and that’s what Fluke addressed when they offered to donate replacement meters. Fluke meters are widely respected and trusted. I doubt these lookalike units are as accurate and reliable as the real deal. Fluke can’t have a shipment of meters floating around that could malfunction and hurt somebody, bringing bad press to somebody who thinks that these are the real deal.
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