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$30K Worth of Multimeters Must Be Destroyed Because They're Yellow
An anonymous reader points out a post at the blog of Sparkfun, a hobbyist electronics retailer. They recently received a letter from U.S. Customs saying a shipment of 2,000 multimeters was being barred from entry into the country. The reason? Trademark law. A company named Fluke holds a trademark on multimeters that have a 'contrasting yellow border.' Sparkfun's multimeters are a yellowish orange, but it was enough for Customs to stop the shipment. Returning the shipment is not an option because of import taxes in China, so the multimeters must now be destroyed. At $15 per item, it'll cost Sparkfun $30,000, plus the $150/hr fee for destroying them. Sparkfun had no idea about the trademark, and doesn't mind changing the color, but they say restrictions like these are a flaw in the trademark system. "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."
Did Fluke actually request this? Or did Customs do this of their own volition?
If it's the latter, Fluke should step up and allow them to make a one time exception for this shipment. It would generate considerably goodwill for the company and show that they're not bullies keeping the little guy down.
If they DID request this, then fuck them all with a chainsaw, seriously.
This is a typical example of the consequences of 'intellectual property' extremism that harms society for no good reason.
I dream of starting a company that can innovate with new products. But I suspect the reality would be a nightmare of lawyers and hassles instead.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
The Department of Homeland Security is nothing but a bunch of thugs. Having dealt with them before on customs, this is basically some government employee flexing their muscles because they like the power and have nothing better to do. The appropriate amount of boot-licking and obsequiousness (and tribute payment) is required in order to get it through.
Those look a LOT like a Fluke multimeter, in more ways then just the color. I find it hard to believe that isn't intentional.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
sounds like an isolated incident.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Ask Apple how you can trademark rounded corners. I'm sure they have lots of insight on this.
For blue, red, green, purple, white, black, tan, clear, brown, striped, poka dotted, etc. multimeters, and de-facto own all the rights to create all multimeters?
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Remove the meters from their plastic case and sell them at a discount.
So you have to hire them to know what they are.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
I've trademarked black writing on a white background. Please destroy any materials that infringe on my IP
You can TRADEMARK just about anything. Copyrighting and patenting are harder, of course, but that's not what we're talking about here. Shit, you can even trademark a common word (like "Apple," as it applies to computers anyway) .
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Ok, you can't send em back, and the gov't says they aren't legal here. Why not a third destination?
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. (Isaac Asimov)
Which one should I get instead? Preferrably one that has already passed customs...
never went shopping for interior paint with a woman have you?
evening twinkle, green aurora and the hundreds of other crazy names they make up
John Fluke must be rolling in his grave. Then again, its been a long time since differential voltmeters were in common use. I've never seen one with a yellow painted cabinet.
Schools are struggling to find the funds to replace textbooks, let alone put their hands on some good hardware like this, and we can't find some way to donate this hardware instead of destroying it? Who cares if the legal document states that no one over the age of 18 is allowed to posses it, at least let someone get some use out of it.
Talk about stupid.
If he had tried to make the multimeter in the "rounded rectangle" shape, with a form factor that will fit in one's palm, with a readable display facing the user, Apple would have sued zim for $30000 per infringement.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
If I google "yellow multimeter", there are a ton of non-Fluke meters that show up.
The meter I have in my lab looks just like a Fluke, but I bought it at Fry's in my poor college days.
It's too bad SparkFun's product got snagged, they are a favorite local supplier for the Denver/Boulder electronics industry. I drive to their will-call all the time when I need cables, dev boards, and such.
Anyway, how did all the other yellow meters get through customs??
Yellow Fluke multimeters have been around for a long, long time. I find it very hard to believe they "didn't know Fluke had a trademark"
Apparently, US customs are simply fighting the yellow multimeter peril!
Ezekiel 23:20
If they haven't talked to an intellectual property lawyer yet, they should do so immediately. Safety yellow on an electrical testing device is incredibly generic.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Sorry, I like SparkFun and all but this does look a lot like Fluke industrial design. Ok so the colour isn't EXACTLY the same shade of yellow, but if you removed the branding from it and asked somebody what brand it looks like they'll say Fluke assuming they've poked around the market any or are in the industry. Granted it would be cool of Fluke saying something like "OK This ONE time" since SparkFun is all about hobbyists who might eventually become Fluke customers. SparkFun should have thought of this before ordering a container full of them, pleading ignorance that your multimeter is DAMN CLOSE to somebody else's product and not expect trouble is dubious at best. It looks a lot like a Fluke 17b with out the buttons.
Destroyed? Hello No...
These will be on Woot in a few weeks, re branded of course.
It could be worse, it could be Monday.
> You dont think coca-cola would be upset if a product came out called coka-cola in a red and white can?
Except this wasn't anything like that.
Coke Inc. Certainly shouldn't be able to "own" the colors red and white.
Although Coke does have a distinctive enough bottle design to qualify for a genuine trademark. Ironically you overlooked it in your rush to fellate your corporate masters.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I notice that SparkFun Electronics is a registered trademark. I'm sure they'd have no problem with my competing companies, SporkFun electronics and Sp@rkFun Electronics.
In the law, ignorance is not an excuse and hasn't been for centuries if not millennia. You are responsible for what you sell and, yes, for better or worse, colors have been trademarkable for a while now. I know of several examples like T-Mobile's magenta and Reese's orange, and I'm not even a retailer.
I have no doubt that SparkFun would exercise its trademark against infringers, so I have little sympathy for their case even if their violation was unintentional.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Is Sparkfun claiming that the striking similarity to another companies long established product line is just a Fluke?
I was told that UPS Brown is trademarked, unsure of the validity of the statement though. This came about when someone had a scratch on their truck and I said just go to the hardware store and buy brown paint, the mechanic pulled out a can of paint and said "you can't its trademarked".
If your small business can't keep track of enough stuff to keep from infringing IP, then buy from suppliers who will indemnify you for IP infringement. Or just buy from reputable retailers.
You decided to get some sketchy Chinese meters from a company skirting the law to try to save some money or raise margins. And now it bit you. It seems like this is how the system is supposed to work.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Any "hobbyist electronics retailer" attempting to sell a multimeter in the US knows -- or should know -- what a Fluke multimeter looks like, and any businessman or businesswoman knows -- or should know -- that there will be problems trying to sell a product that looks like the product with a dominant share of the market.
Also, you don't need "an army of consultants or attorneys to find this information." Trademarks are freely available from the USPTO web site, in searchable form. Anybody can look them up.
Finally, most business contracts between a manufacturer and a distributor will have an indemnification clause, in which the manufacturer warrants that the product has no intellectual property issues and, should a claim be made against the distributor, the costs associated with such claims will be borne by the manufacturer. If Sparkfun's contract for the Fluke knock-offs didn't have such a clause, I'm sure their standard contract will in the future.
It's called "trade dress" and it isn't uncommon. Seven Towns claims ownership of its Rubik's Cube color scheme for example. Recently Apple successfully sued Samsung on trade dress grounds for the visual similarity of their products. It's look-and-feel infringement. If the claimant has a powerful enough brand and can show enough similarities, they can easily prevent competitors from diluting their trademark with a trade dress infringement argument.
+0 Meh
I've owned multimeters but never heard the Fluke name before today. It sounds like their main feature is the color of the case rather than the gizmos inside. I think I'll go out of my way never to buy their products.
I am holding in my hand at this very moment a grey faced yellow bodies multimeter which was made in china and sold at walmart. I guess laws only apply to the little guys.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
It would be a hell of a lot easier to empathize with SparkFun, if they weren't being such whiny little bitches about the whole affair (which, FTR, is their own damn fault - Fluke's been around and using that same design scheme for decades).
Look - you didn't do your due diligence, and got yourself burned for it; suck it up, learn from your mistake, and move on with your lives.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
This is indeed odd. From the actual document of the trademark owned by Fluke it specifically states: Color is not claimed as a feature of the mark. Either there is some other reason the items are being refused entry or Fluke is falsely claiming a trademark infraction, at least if it is because a similar color yellow was used.
Besides, isn't it up to the courts to determine trademark violations, not customs?
There is no room in scientific endevor for intellectual cowardice. If those multimeters are indeed 'yellow' they fully deserve their ignomious fate! It's no fluke that their cowardice has lead to their ultimate destruction...
Maybe Sparkfun can ask Fluke for an event-based waiver in an open-letter. This gives Fluke the option to show themselves as a "good guy" in a very public way and not waste good tools or resources of a decent company.
It is an moment of humility to ask a question.
It is a lifetime of shame not to ask.
But most Americans born here grew up with more honest set of retailers, more honest wholesalers, reasonably effective enforcement, they have not had this cheap imitation knock off problem. The worst you would see is the Walmart brand (Equate?) of nasal spray next to one made by J&J. If you had never gone home and opened a package of Cynthol bar soap and find inside a foul smelling skin abrading cake of caustic alkali with Sinthol stamped on it, you have not been affected by these knock-offs. So all the power to customs agents to spot the cheap knock-offs and take suo moto action to knock the imitations off the planet.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Well, it's not like this is something new. Companies have been able to trademark colors for some time. And it's not like Fluke is some unknown company -- they've been around for a long time and everyone in the industry knows their multimeters are yellow around the edges. I'm skeptical that Sparkfun is completely innocent in all this. A quick look at their website shows that their company colors feature red, which appears to even apply to their circuit boards and tools. One would think their multimeters would be red, not yellow.
And as for forcing them to be destroyed, well that's how customs has always worked. Thirty years ago I had some alcohol brought back from Europe that I failed to declare. The choice was to pay the tax or have it destroyed and pay for the destruction. Either way you're gonna pay.
Having said all of that, there seem to be lots of other things like this that do make it through customs, and one gets the impression that Sparkfun would have had no problem if their bribe had been big enough.
Proverbs 21:19
Well, it's not a case over the case. It's just the back and outside of the case is yellow.
This is what Fluke switched to in about 2000 and what this is emulating.
The case is supposed to look like a black case in a yellow case because that's what older Flukes did, they had a black plastic case in a yellow rubber case.
But that just made meters more bulky and made it harder to access the battery compartments. So Fluke dropped that a long time ago and the clones did too.
Also, the destruction is mandatory in this case, it's part of the punishment for the transgression.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Paint them.
Grab a toothbrush, get some red and blue paint. and SPECKLE the damn things. scrape what hits the display with a razor. or would that cost more than the 30k loss?
Given the nature of governments, I wouldn't put it past a government to have an import duty on things coming in from anywhere, even if it came from its own country.
If I ever have a stroke and end up with the desire to work with chinese manufacturers on anything, I'm going to have to add "responsible for any costs arising because you ripped off the competitor's design" to the list of things that apparently have to be explicitly spelled out in the contracts like "no lead paint substitution" "no cadmium substitution" "no date rape drug substitution" "no anifreeze substitution" and so on.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
I'm siding with the import police on this one. I looked at the images and they look a LOT like a fluke DMM.
The overall design is like their meters from a few years ago.
Even the silk screening is the same style.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
never went shopping for interior paint with a woman have you?
You do realize what website you're on?
The standard used for Trademark is will a similar product cause confusion in the marketplace? Here we are talking about the same product (which there are only so many ways to make a multimeter) that color and design characteristics may be the only way to distinguish products.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
Well, I am surprised COBY has not fallen afoul of SONY, with similar coloring and fonts.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
Call the EPA. Tell them it will be bad for the environment. Let the government agencies spend their resources fighting it out instead of trampling on our rights.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
http://www.usitc.gov/publicati...
"* Certain Digital Multimeters, and Products with Multimeter Functionality
Investigation No. 337-TA-588
(Publication No. 4210; December 2010)"
from http://www.usitc.gov/intellect...
(Warning 162 page pdf)
Basically Fluke was a party behind the Trade investigation as to importations of comparable-appearing knockoffs.
I have no horse in this race; I don't use multimeters and couldn't care less who wins (although I tend to be a free-marketeer, generally). Imagegoogling for both, some of them look remarkably similar. I'd say the block was justified. If a bunch got through before the ban was enforced, that doesn't mean the ban was unjust or arbitrary.
-Styopa
No.. It was designed to look like a Fluke and they are claiming that was a fluke..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Instead of destroying them or sending them back to China, Sparkfun should have seen if they could send them to another country where Fluke doesn't hold the trademark. Forget China, try the Philippines or someplace in South America.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Seriously, this trademark is too vague. If you want a specific shade, put Putnam Brown (UPS) it's silly but ok. But to say yellow and some other color effectively names only an unspecific yellow.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
I think it's a fluke they got caught myself..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Why in the world should we allow such trademark laws to exist. I am sort of an off white pinkish color. Should I trademark my skin color. Will US Customs burn all people who usurp my skin color?
The thing that I don't understand is why returning them would impose a large import tax, when it was simply going back to country of origin and manufacture. How does that make any sense? And would that import tax on a mere 2000 devices really have exceeded the cost of destroying them?
Returning them is also more sound because at least then you can re-skin them and sell them eventually.
To me if you are going to manufacture anything it only makes sense that you would ensure the ability to return the products in case of an issue. What if they had simply delivered devices that didn't work? It seems like the same import tax dilemma would have applied.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
when you remove branding?
http://killer.xxx/the_car_anal...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
/Any/ attorney fresh from law school who has taken /one/ course in trademark law would know that there are circumstances where colors can be trademarked. No "army" needed here.
If Sparkfun has an issue with anyone, it would be with the manufacturer of those devices - not the countries that enforce IP laws.
badumpbump.
maybe its the weed up here
Ideal https://www.google.ca/search?q...
Fluke https://www.google.ca/search?q...
ideal clamp meter https://www.google.ca/search?q...
fluke clmap meter https://www.google.ca/search?q...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
That's like saying some company like General Motors owns the Bow Tie badge and no one realized it. There can be no instrument company in the world that is not familiar with Fluke products and their color scheme, and if they design products using that scheme then it's pretty clear they are hoping to use the scheme to entice buyers because it's associated with high end equipment. It doesn't matter if Fluke or customs blocked it. It was still a stupid thing to try.
Once they've been caught. Fluke being one of the major names in meters they absolutely knew what they were doing in choosing that color. They were hoping the color recognition would help sell units. It was part of this companies marketing strategy. Make a meter that people will think 'its like a Fluke' when they look at it. Which is exactly why it's trademarked. Now I will agree trademarks in general are silly, but for these guys to plead naive is also.
I've used Fluke equipment for a very long time, before that Beckman products as well and unfortunately like anything in this arena (meters, test equipment etc.) as soon as they release a product nowadays it gets copied. A lot of the Fluke designs have literally been hijacked to the point that unless you closely look for the Fluke branding, you can't tell the difference until you get into a calibration test and I've seen the cheap imports fall flat in areas where it matters. For the average guy out there tinkering it doesn't matter but in high end manufacturing and testing, it does. It's akin to fake Rolex Watches, designer handbags and the like with feature/functions that have been carefully worked out including tolerances that can mean a product or test passes or fails. Because we're talking about multimeters here, It really is no different an argument than Cellphones manufactured by two different companies where one has patents or trademarks on their designs. These are the mechanisms allowed by law that allow these companies protect their IP but regrettably there are importers that will try and sneak their product in, taking the risk that Customs will confiscate the items. I realize Sparkfun just want to sell to enthusiasts out there but really, they should have checked before trying to importing them.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Maybe so, but I think the argument made in the original article is still valid. If you're going to copyright your color scheme, you better list a *specific* color shade. Simply declaring "yellow" or any other primary color to be "your copyrighted color" is far too broad a statement.
People who pay a premium price for a Fluke meter are usually well aware of what they're paying for. Just because a Chinese knock-off comes out with similar colors doesn't mean people would be fooled into thinking it was equivalent to a Fluke.
I think they were planning to SELL them for $5/unit, so lets say they cost $2.50 each to make (probably less).
So then the total value of 2000 units for customs would have been $5k. How can you possibly have import taxes for return that come anywhere near the $30k they say they are losing? I don't see how the import taxes would possibly be anything greater than 100% of the declared value of the shipment, so it should make more sense to return and pay the import taxes, than write off the entire cost of manufacture + pay the cost of destroying them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I understand that Pepsi has a trademark on the particular shades of blue and red used on their products. If you made a soft drink using those shades, Pepsi would come down on you like a bag of hammers.
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
http://www.lowes.com/Search=di...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
http://appleinsider.com/articl...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Trademark, not copyright. Though often lumped together along with patents under the heading of 'intellectual property' they are actually unrelated areas of law with little in common.
Utterly useless.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Seriously, companies like this are their own worst enemies. Had these been sold, the Chinese manufacturer will simply create their own slightly modified copy of it and sell it for a fraction of the price. Now, this company is on the hook for screw-ups.
Have to hand it to China. They get to block just about everybody via tariffs, manipulate their money relative to others, subsidize and dump on western markets, while the west just ignores this.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Apple computers and Apple music have actually gone to court over that several times. Always ends in a settlement.
The first time, Apple computer agreed not to enter the music or musical equipment business.
The second time, it was after macs with decent audio capability were out - the two Apples disagreed if those qualified as musical equipment.
The third time, Apple computer had to reach a new agreement so they could launch iTunes. So they paid over a pile-o-money for an agreement to use the Apple name in music retail.
Why not create 2,000 new blue and green cases? Ship those cases in and then simply replace the cases on all the units rather than destroying them.
Not just the yellow, but the entire design is a bit close for comfort to this Fluke model, it's probably not just the yellow but the combination of shape and control placement with a yellow outline and grey front.
You dont think coca-cola would be upset if a product came out called coka-cola
These meters weren't branded with a name similar to Fluke, so that's not a good analogy.
in a red and white can?
There are already competitors to Coke that sell in red and white cans:
http://www.colawp.com/database...
If you go to the USPTO trademark search and put in "multimeter and yellow" the FIRST result is a Fluke yellow multimeter.
If you are in the business of making multimeters and claim you have never heard of Fluke or seen one you are clearly full of it.
Company caught clearly knocking off other company's product tries to play the "trademark laws is bad, boo hoo" card.
Not impressed
-jon
Have you noticed all the T shirts and other gear with NFL logos on them? Those are made and sold by other companies with the permission of the NFL.
What a trademark holder is not allowed to do is sit silently, allowing infringement, implying that it's okay while other people build businesses around the mark, then suddenly sue five years later. If you want to allow someone to use your mark in a certain way, you have to explicitly grant permission for a specific use for a specific period of time. That way no-one is confused as to what you're allowing.
Just as pink is a trademark, registered to Owens-Corning Fiberglass, yellow is registered to Eastman Kodak.
Mess with Kodak at your own risk.
It is likely Sparkfun or some other Western importer supplied a Fluke DMM as a sample and said "we want something like this". Now, China being China, they do tend to focus on the cosmetics. They are excellent copiers. In this case, too good. Sparkfun might be telling the truth about their ignorance of the trademark, but certainly not of the original article.
then you know Fluke has trademarked those colors.
It is on par with a car company selling a new car called a 'Mustang' and then saying they didn't know there was a 'Mustang', and it's unfair becasue they can't know every trademark law.
Is this the smartest way to handle it? no. If Fluke wanted to look like some awesome hero's, they would make a move to allow them into the country under the agreement that Sparkfun changes the color schemes once in the US.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Actual intentional Fluke clones stream across the ocean in small lots from ebay every day. Some of these are presumably actual Fluke meters, just being sold by the factory directly, rather than through normal channels.
Plus the hilarious things like FUKE meters, which are very clearly inferior copies, but intentionally made to look similar.
And then the generic $3 meters in red, black, yellow, orange, green, whatever. Sometimes these come with a brand name you've never heard of, sometimes they are completely devoid of all identifying marks.
I'm guessing that way more than 2,000 of these have made it in the country so far this year, mostly with laughably and obviously bogus customs forms.
From reading the comments, it would appear that Fluke really did "invent" the yellow multimeter, and they have a legitimate concern about protecting their trade dress. But for most people (particularly those under 40 or 50), "cheap multimeter" (of any color) is a stronger brand than "yellow multimeter".
See that "Preview" button?
fluke multimeters are about a 100 bucks
Cheap ones that are readily available on ebay (you don't need sparkfun) are under 30
so, the real reason is that fluke is desperate to stop the loss of market share; each multimeter spark notes sells for 15 bucks is a potential 100 dollar sale that fluke lost
Agreed, this is an attempt to copy Fluke's recent multimeter design.
It's not just yellow. It has the same color scheme, same display layout, similar fonts, same case taper as a real Fluke. Brand name in same location as is the model number and description. It was designed to look as much like a Fluke as possible.
If I saw the sparkfun multimeter sitting on a bench in my lab, I would think it was a Fluke until I got close.
Sparkfun knew this when they bought them. Their fault. If they did not know it was designed to imitate a Fluke, they are in the wrong business. "Other companies did it and did not get caught" does not make it right. They risked it anyway and lost. Complaining about the trademark is not the solution.
How can an entity own curved sides and any shade of yellow. This is out of hand people. Had they did this and then printed the word Fluke on it OK. This is no different than Apples rounded corners. Companies can now own geometric shapes, colors, and even DNA. These are things of nature, not men. What is this world coming to?
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but in 18 years of public and private education, I was not every told about any laws, except in passing, unless you want to count reading the constitution in the 12th grade.
It used to be that governments had secret laws that you could be guilty of without even knowing it was illegal. We've done something better. Most laws are public but there are so many of them no on can possibly know them all -- ask any lawyer.
Competition Good, Monopoly Bad.
If you would actually read the trademark, it mentions dark gray and yellow in a specific, illustrated pattern. This knock off clearly copies it (whether on purpose or accident is immaterial).
Are you saying you've never heard of Fluke? C'mon, son.
Why destroy them? Why not ship them back and have the cases changed/painted? This is gross.
Twinstiq, game news
Is destruction really necessary when there is paint?
IMHO this is insane. Copyrighting color, form or shape - this is totally insane. And this event and also Apple vs Samsung event shows it.
One should not be able to copyright form or color. One can already copyright name and logo - this is enough. If company wants people to recognize their products - the can put their name/logo in a prominent place and then sue everybody who puts same name/logo without licence. But saying that only them can make yellow multimeters and rectangular phones - this is simply insane.
I bullshit you not, my yellow multimeter just broke. It's reading in everything at like 6x its real voltage now. DAMN IT!
I read the paper, I checked in the Fluke site.
90% of all hand multimeter's looks like the sketch in that damned trademark. Almost half of the multimeters I see on stores around here (Brazil) looks like a Fluke. Almost half of the multimeters I saw on sale when I was a teenager (hell way before 2000) looks like a Fluke device.
It's just the best design for the job.
Thank you, Fluke. Now I have one more reason to avoid north-american products (that use to be pretty good, but not so good it can't be replaced).,=
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
Fluke owns Wavetek
http://www.eetimes.com/documen...
Think of the ecological damage by destroying them on top of wasting resources. Someone call Fluke and see if there is a way to buy out the cost of the infringement just so a butt load of ewaste is not generated.
IANAL, but if you click the link to the trademark filing the filing specifically says that color is NOT claimed as part of the mark. I thought I would buy a FLUKE one day, but this changed my mind.
If they got them made in the US by US citizens who spend their earnings back into the US economy then US Customs would never have got involved and some Americans would get a job making the product... but on the other hand the manufacturing costs, including the mandatory health insurance, would likely be higher.
Just sent then to other country... sell then there or paint then to other color.
Higuita
They apparently patented it.
Please note that "a woman" for the Slashdot demographics most likely includes "mom", and up to a certain point of demographics, "granny". Besides that... I doubt most aunts would trust Slashdotters' color sensibility. I mean... Just look at your desktop!
Could I just suggest that there be a website where I could post a photo of an object I hoped to sell, and if no-one commented within a reasonable time then I could point at that post as a valid defense if some git wanted to do this to my tiny little business. I would suggest 2.7 minutes, but I don't like this sort of stuff. But it would be fun to argue in court that the other guy's attorneys had a "duty of care" to be monitoring this site 24x7 (at the other guys expense, I might add). Of course, the current standard duty of care is imposed in the other direction even though the supporting search process is way stoopid. Let's start to use real-time for what it's really worth.
Of course, this plan would never work because the rent-seekers among us have more money, and thereby more access to the legal system, than the rest of us. That is, the rest of us put together.
Cory Doctorow ( Pirate Cinema ), you are my new god of IP stupidity. Must read for all of us, never mind the nit-pickers among us.
"There is no god but allah" - well, they got it half right.
Sparkfun got caught with its hand in the cookie jar. Look, they're no longer 2 guys working out of their basement, it's a rather decent-sized operation that's capitalizing on the "Maker" wave. Good for them. But that doesn't let them play dirty pool. I'm not saying they commissioned the counterfeit design, I'd bet almost anything that some sweatshop in Shinzen has been stamping these things out for years.
It's clear that SparkFun over-reached on this one, the resemblance to Fluke meters goes way, way beyond the color. Others here have provided links and comparisons, they'll all correct.
One of my oldest & most durable meters, an HP 971A, is essentially the same yellow color, but no one is going to mistake it for a fluke: http://www.mytestsignal.com/wp...
Fluke isn't concerned about a legitimate competitor, they're worried about the typical cheap "10 cents on the dollar" Chinese knock offs that confuse consumers and de-value the Fluke brand.
Fluke is a manufacturer of higher quality testing equipment, and has put in a lot of effort on brand recognition. It is not by accident that these units match. Now it may be that Sparkfun simply purchased a bunch of cheap Chinese units who had copied the trademarked systems, but it's not Fluke who is at fault here nor should be villanized.
I have two Chinese made non-fluke multimeters from different manufacturers and they are both yellow.
So the USPTO awards Fluke a trademark color scheme without defining the actual colors? How does that work? If Sparkfun's next batch of red DMM's is not "red enough" for Fluke's liking, can they claim that their red is actually just a very reddish yellow? How about green - that contains yellow too; technically, the only color not covered by this trademark is primary blue.
You may have a very good case with off-road mining equipment. Such a ridiculous claim can be thrown out or invalidated on the basis of examples I would hope. Look at the very slight difference in colors between Komatsu, Caterpillar, Dresser and some older Euclid equipment. Very subtle shades of yellow. It can also be brought back to light that the fundamental reason for the yellow is often for field equipment and tooling to stand out and not get lost or accidentally damaged or destroyed against a varied background.
That is all.
Fluke made a very generous offer to help SparkFun out, even though they didn't have to. This is FLuke's response to SparkFun: https://www.facebook.com/notes... I have been using Fluke products for years and used Beckman Industrial test equipment before that. In all the years I have used Fluke products I have never had more reliable test equipment. They didn't cause the seizure of those meters for SparkFun. The US Customs and Border protection did supporting a legitimate trademark filed years before. I'm not going to debate the details of the trademark. I've seen too much nit-picking over the last few days from people who aren't in a position to have to defend their brand/product from knock-offs. I think Fluke's response was very generous and in light of all the negativity directed at them for no good reason I would say that was a very nice gesture. It reinforces my respect for the company as a maker of high-quality test equipment and a supporter of the maker community and the industry that uses their products.
"That's racist!"
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
It start trademarking fucking collors!
Many imported, hand held multimeters are yellow. I've had one for close to 30 years that looks like the Fluke 87-v except it's all yellow. the entire case being yellow. Many brands of hand held meters were yellow quite some time ago.The meter in question does indeed look like the Fluke. However, Fluke is apparently doing the right thing. Below is Fluke's response to the situation. http://hackaday.com/2014/03/20...
Could the "yellow" be a reference to racial slurs, as in "Yellow Menace"?