Copies of GripSport products.

[Grip]

Well they say that "imitation is the greatest form of flattery", so I suppose we should be flattered.

We've had quite a number of riders tell us that some guys are trying to sell copies of the GripSport Downhill carrier at one particular riding spot in Victoria.

Now the people who told us this were more than a little disturbed about the fakes, thought it was the wrong thing to do and suggested we set the lawyers onto those responsible… after all we DO have registered designs on all our products and there is this little term in law known as "Deceptive Similarity" that has belted Australian fakers about the head on more than one occasion before this. But like I said… I suppose we should be flattered that people want to copy our gear and for now we're still investigating all this and considering our next move.

But in the mean time we just wanted to remind people that GripSport has been around for over 10 years now. Our carriers have been designed from the ground up, have had full engineering specs done on them, are made from 100% Australian materials, are tested to destruction, are guaranteed for life and have millions of dollars worth of Product Liability Insurance backing them up.

Copies don't have all that. Copies are just that… copies… made to look like the original rather than actually being the original.

So remember folks. If it doesn't have the GripSport logo on it… it isn't genuine.

.

 

[Sean]

Does this law of deceptive similarity apply to products that are made by someone for their own personal use, without the intention of selling the product? Just curious.

 

[tu plang]

Does this law of deceptive similarity apply to products that are made by someone for their own personal use, without the intention of selling the product? Just curious.

Depends if you tricked yourself into thinking it was a gripsport product

 

[Grip]

Does this law of deceptive similarity apply to products that are made by someone for their own personal use, without the intention of selling the product? Just curious.

We don't have a problem with people making their own "personal use" carrier... hell, we'll even sell you the crank holders etc

But manufacturing, advertising and selling is a whole other bucket of maggots.

 

[321]

Im surprised u actually have patents covering the crank holding design because if i remember correctly you weren’t the first to make crank holding bike racks and people currently sell that design on trailers ect.? I think i can remember old pictures of one in a US mag. Or does it only cover your QR mounting system? If so maybe a nice little letter to the offenders from your lawyer would have more effect than a post on the internet. Unless they are actually telling people they are actual grip racks which is just dishonest and dodgy .

 

[thecat]

We don't have a problem with people making their own "personal use" carrier... hell, we'll even sell you the crank holders etc

Which reminds me I have to measure up out club trailer and give you a ring

But manufacturing, advertising and selling is a whole other bucket of maggots.

Mmmmm bucket of maggots... Arrlll..

 

[Grip]

Im surprised u actually have patients covering the crank holding design

I never mentioned PATENTS. Registered designs and patents are two entirely different things.

because if i remember correctly you weren’t the first to make crank holding bike racks

I think you'll find we definitely were. I have no idea what may or may not have been made by individuals for personal use, or made overseas, but in Australia at least I don't know of another company manufacturing this style of carrier ever. Which is why we were able to get registered designs on OUR designs.

and people currently sell that design on trailers ect.?

Trailers are not carriers.

maybe a nice little letter to the offenders from your lawyer would have more effect than a post on the internet.

We're still deciding about our next course of action, but I think you'd be surprised at just how much can be gained from a posting like this on a site like Rotorburn. At the very least it sends a very clear message to those who think it's OK to just copy other people's hard work and then try to profit from someone else's investment and good name.

Unless they are actually telling people they are actual grip racks which is just dishonest and dodgy .

I'm not suggesting these are being marketted as GripSport carriers... just that they are copies of our product. And trust me, if we found out people were selling them as GripSport carriers, or actively marketing/selling/advertising etc, then we would certainly let the lawyers loose with orders to kill.

For now though, this thread was simply to say... "Hey, we're being copied. That's sort of a compliment and a piss-off all at the same time." And to let people know that we are aware of what's going on.

 

[Lorday]

Wow, you've remained pretty dam calm...If somebody 'copied' my design i'd let loose.

And please, don't support frauds, do not purchase one of these carriers.

 

[bloodzy]

Well for anyone considering buying the copies, Don't!!!

Go and support Gripsport, give them your hard earned so they can keep churning out awesome Aussie owned and made products.

I have had my dual DH bike carrier, with quick release for 3 years now, paints chipped in a few spots where I have dropped it, or scraped it against something, but its still as strong as the day I bought it. Its carried 40kg of bikes all over the place, had fat buggers standing and bouncing on it.

It has seen many a road trip, survived the drive from Tassie to Qld on the back of the old corolla, its been wet, muddy, sandy the lot, still in bloody good nick, And all backed with great customer service, what other Company manager gives out his mobile phone and email after your order was delayed a day! so you can contact him for any updates.

If I ever have to replace this thing in my lifetime id be very very surprised.

 

[dunndog]

So are these racks direct rip offs or do they just appear similar? Got any pics?

 

[Duff_Man]

Grip...321 has a fair point...you cant claim the crank slot bike rack as your idea. I know for a fact that several of your designs have come from other places and other people. You may of come up with a few nifty ideas yourself, and you are the first person to manufacture and advertise the system for sale, but you sure as shit didnt come up with the system yourself. I remember when you were measuring up Mark Casey's single bike rack that he had on the back of his car for years. Yes granted you maybe making them now and you may of come up with a few ideas yourself, but to take all the credit is a bit much.

 

[Grip]

Grip...321 has a fair point...you cant claim the crank slot bike rack as your idea. I know for a fact that several of your designs have come from other places and other people. You may of come up with a few nifty ideas yourself, and you are the first person to manufacture and advertise the system for sale, but you sure as shit didnt come up with the system yourself. I remember when you were measuring up Mark Casey's single bike rack that he had on the back of his car for years. Yes granted you maybe making them now and you may of come up with a few ideas yourself, but to take all the credit is a bit much.

Duff... I never claimed to have invented the crank holder. And I'm sure as shit not claiming credit for anything we didn't actually do. But like it or not, GripSport did design THESE particular carriers with THEIR particular combination of materials, dimensions, crank holder, bracing, quick-realease and bolt-on hitches. And that's what a design and design protection is all about. Yes there had been various home made jobbies using the same basic principal, (but not many! as this was well before todays D/H popularity) BUT the knock-off carriers I'm talking about now are copies of our designs. Designs we've developed, researched and tested, marketted AND registered.

I hope you can see where I'm coming from now. I never said we invented the concept of carrying a bike this way, but we have paid for and therefore own, the design/look of our particular carriers... and they are the ones getting coppied.

 

[Binaural]

Wow, you've remained pretty dam calm...If somebody 'copied' my design i'd let loose.

It's a sad fact of modern life that if you design anything clever or innovative then somebody will rip it off. My old company exported a lot of custom machinery designs into China, and one day our sales guy turned up to site to find an identical copy sitting next to the original machine (they had disassembled and measured all the parts to get manufacturer's drawings).

 

[Duff_Man]

Yeh i understand all of this....at the end of the day only 30% change is required to make the system different from others...and looking at a bike rack that wouldnt be to hard. But at the end of the day grip it is just common these days to find products that are copied by other people.

Grips 20mm fork grip:

http://www.gripsport.com.au/bike_main.php?part=bike_products&prodID=38

Fork up..been out since the 90's:

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...osoft:*:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7LENT_en&sa=X&um=1


Just another one for purpose would be your shock bush removal tool...would like to know where that design came from.....

 

[Tazed]

Grip...321 has a fair point...you cant claim the crank slot bike rack as your idea. I know for a fact that several of your designs have come from other places and other people. You may of come up with a few nifty ideas yourself, and you are the first person to manufacture and advertise the system for sale, but you sure as shit didnt come up with the system yourself. I remember when you were measuring up Mark Casey's single bike rack that he had on the back of his car for years. Yes granted you maybe making them now and you may of come up with a few ideas yourself, but to take all the credit is a bit much.

Yeh i understand all of this....at the end of the day only 30% change is required to make the system different from others...and looking at a bike rack that wouldnt be to hard. But at the end of the day grip it is just common these days to find products that are copied by other people.

Grips 20mm fork grip:

http://www.gripsport.com.au/bike_main.php?part=bike_products&prodID=38

Fork up..been out since the 90's:

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...osoft:*:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7LENT_en&sa=X&um=1

Just another one for purpose would be your shock bush removal tool...would like to know where that design came from.....

Grip's got a reason to be annoyed - all he's asking for is our support for his registered designs, rather than buying 'copies', and that's fine. He's entitled to do that and you don't have to follow his request if you don't want to.
It's actually not a debate about who designed what first, or similarities between internationally available product (that's quite possibly not protected by registration or patents off their shores of origin...).
The bitchy tone could be avoided.

 

[Grip]

Yeh i understand all of this....at the end of the day only 30% change is required to make the system different from others...and looking at a bike rack that wouldnt be to hard. But at the end of the day grip it is just common these days to find products that are copied by other people.

Grips 20mm fork grip:

http://www.gripsport.com.au/bike_main.php?part=bike_products&prodID=38

Fork up..been out since the 90's:

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...osoft:*:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7LENT_en&sa=X&um=1


Just another one for purpose would be your shock bush removal tool...would like to know where that design came from.....

Wow, you've obviously got sand in your giny over this. Are you spoiling for a fight? Because I'm certainly not, but you say "yeh I understand all of this" and yet it doesn't seem that you do and you're throwing totally irellevant points into an arguement that only you seem to be having

Firstly, the fact that our fork "grip" looks like another brand has absolutely nothing to do with what this thread is all about... for the simple reason that we didn't infringe on anyone's legal design protection. The people making knock-offs of our carrier ARE doing that.

Secondly, you throw up a thinly disguised hint to all reading this that we copied someone else's product (our shock bush tool). Careful what you say there sunshine, because I know you're still a student and not the legal practitioner you obviously think you are, but I sat down and made our very first Shock Bushing tool over 10 years ago, out of brass, and from hex material I had laying about under the lathe. I came up with the idea and the measurements myself and then started manufacturing and selling them some years later after seeing the CTS tool (which made me realise that there was a market for them). So yes it happens to look like another product that was released on the market in the mean time but I certainly didn't know about it 10 years ago and again, we obviously haven't infringed anyone's legal rights (or I'm sure we would have heard about it)... whereas the guys copying our carriers ARE.

And thirdly, you say "at the end of the day grip it is just common these days to find products that are copied by other people". Well just because it's common.... does that make it right?

 

[toodles]

Waaaaay old school bushing tool thread

http://www.rotorburn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24454

 

[Duff_Man]

wow i think toodles post just said it all grip....dont think we need to go into this anymore. Just take this latest attempt at "your" racks as a bit of friendly competition.

 

[tu plang]

wow i think toodles post just said it all grip....dont think we need to go into this anymore. Just take this latest attempt at "your" racks as a bit of friendly competition.

Did you read the whole thing or just the first post... I don't think it proves anything.

You are being a right stubborn wanker who is constantly missing the point here. Every post you have made in this thread has been a complete displeasure to read.

 

[Grip]

wow i think toodles post just said it all grip....dont think we need to go into this anymore. Just take this latest attempt at "your" racks as a bit of friendly competition.

Oh wow indeed. What exactly are you studying? Point missing 101? As TuPlang just asked... do you actually read what's posted?

And actually, your lack of understanding about matters of LAW and that attitude of a bit of friendly competition has just made me even more detirmined not to let this slide and I think I'm more likely to just set the lawyers loose now. So wow (again)... now those blokes making a quick buck out of our work will have you to thank for stiring the pot so much that we decided to step up to the next level.