Fluke Donates Multimeters To SparkFun As Goodwill Gesture

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Fluke Donates Multimeters To SparkFun As Goodwill Gesture

Posted by Soulskill on Friday March 21, 2014 @05:42AM from the companies-getting-along dept.

Actually, I do RTFA writes "We recently heard about the confiscation of a delivery of multimeters to SparkFun for infringing on Fluke's trademark. One common thread in the discussions was the theme that Fluke should have let that shipment through as a goodwill gesture to SparkFun and the Maker community. Well, Fluke did one better. They announced they were sending more than $30k worth of official multimeters to SparkFun for them to do whatever they want with. SparkFun is most likely going to give them away. A great example of win-win-win?"

10 of 250 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Good PR Move by Cpt_Kirks · 2014-03-21 05:43 · Score: 5, Insightful

Fluke moves from villain to hero.
$30K is cheap for good PR.
1. Re:Good PR Move by Godai · 2014-03-21 05:58 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I think Sparkfun is out either way from what I understand. They're planning on giving the Fluke ones away to educational institutions, but they seem much happier about this than just flat out losing the $30k worth of meters.
  
  --
  Wood Shavings!
  - Godai
2. Re:Good PR Move by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-21 06:31 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I don't think that Sparkfun was intentionally trying to get fluke lookalike DMMs, and I'm very sure that Fluke agrees with me. Yeah, Fluke got put in a rough spot by this mess, but nobody was malicious. So Fluke spends a bit of their advertising budget to buy their way out. They benefit because they keep their trademark and they get their products into the hands of tomorrow's engineers, technicians and hobbyists. Sparkfun gets to make a great big gesture about IP law and an actual choice about donating equipment (which they do pretty often anyways - this won't kill them). This is what we call 'win win.'
  Since they're donating the DMMs, technically both companies are losing about 30K. Given their respective sizes, Sparkfun is making the larger sacrifice, I think.
3. Re:Good PR Move by syzler · 2014-03-21 06:32 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Although the blog mentions, trademark , I bet the multi-meters were actually infringing upon trade dress of Fluke's multimeters. Trade mark reserves a specific logo/phrase/design. Trade dress protects the look and feel of the product. I learned a great deal about this distinction from Mattel when I created a Magic Eight Ball app for iOS when the iTunes app store first opened.
Re:Nice recover by Anrego · 2014-03-21 05:54 · Score: 5, Informative

If you believe fluke's statement on the matter (personally I do), they didn't initiate this whole mess.
Re:Kind of an empty gesture by jo_ham · 2014-03-21 05:56 · Score: 5, Insightful

As the article notes, SparkFun isn't about to try to resell these guys, so SparkFun is still out their entire shipment. What would have been a lot more meaningful of Fluke to do would be to cancel the trademark. That being said, I love Fluke multimeters. Five years of physics labs really made me believe their unofficial motto, "If it works, it's a Fluke."
Why should they cancel their trademark? In what world is that even remotely the right thing to do here?
The slashdot community is hilarious sometimes.
Re:Kind of an empty gesture by smooth+wombat · 2014-03-21 06:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

The slashdot community is hilarious sometimes.

Here's the way it works around here:

If I produce software, I want to get paid for it. If someone else produces software, I'll steal it.

When I make a product, no one else can make anything like it. When someone else makes a product like someone else, they're free to rip off the design because you can't copyright or trademark that shit.

--
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Re:No. by glasshole · 2014-03-21 06:10 · Score: 5, Interesting

Sometimes I can't tell if these posts or trolls or not. Why should anyone develop any product if someone else can just clone it and sell it cheaper? While I think copyright laws as they are, are completely nuts, there has to be something to protect against straight up physical counterfeiting.
Re:How is this a good thing for SparkFun? by Sarten-X · 2014-03-21 06:33 · Score: 5, Insightful

SparkFun is in the business of selling DIY electronics. They're more like a modern Heath.
They're out the original shipment, but Fluke stepped in with an absolutely unnecessary act of goodwill. Now SparkFun's broken even, because they still have multimeters to sell to make their business, and the customers that would have bought the original ones still want multimeters, and now SparkFun has the Fluke brand, to boot...
But this is no longer in the hands of the inventory people. This is marketing. Sure, SparkFun could probably sell the multimeters at a very nice profit, but that's not their business. They're selling electronics in general, so they thrive on the repeat business rather than one-time equipment sales. Giving away these multimeters to loyal customers is a nice way to build their own brand loyalty.
Fluke looks like the good guy. SparkFun gets cheap viral marketing. Everybody's walking away happy.

--
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Step up your game Sparkfun by ThatsNotPudding · 2014-03-21 07:03 · Score: 5, Funny

Next week, order some Chinese cars that look suspiciously like Bugatti Veyrons.