This is not true. First, designs in the EU do not exist as of use (unlike a trademark, which does not require a registration). They need to be registered. In the UK and all over the EU. See here; How your unregistered designs are protected - GOV.UK
Second, a registered design covers the esthetic aspect of an object, not its functionality. PCBs have nothing esthetic. Even if you attempted, you’d be very hard pressed to register a design on a PCB. Unless the physical PCB had the shape of a skull or a skateboard, then you might. Here, it’s a square. So none of that.
This is not quite right either. What you’re referring to here is passing off, which is a trademark concept. And the end goal of a passing off lawsuit is always to attempt to show that the infringer is attempting to pass off his products as being the same source as the rightful owner of the trademark. Here, @stewii is not attempting to pass of his VESC as Trampa’s. Unless I am mistaken, everyone on this thread is very clear that Trampa is not associated with @stewii. The is no confusion as to the source of @stewii’s VESCs.
The only IP I see is the copyright in the printed circuit board itself, which belongs to its original author. And if that author did not do it from scratch (and he used for examples some little bits and pieces from different PCBs all over the place), then there might be many authors to the copyright. And to infringe copyright, you need to show that a substantial portion of your copyright has been infringed. Very hard thing to do. Nobody has a monopoly on the Moby Dick story.
So, unless you have a registered right (which only protects you for the country in which the right is registered, there is no such thing as a worldwide patent for example. It’s always per country) in a specific given country, you have no leg to stand on in terms of enforcing IP rights.
I’ve sided with you so many times, Frank, but this sounds to me like Apple patenting rounded edges. BV has specifically allowed others to produce and sell hardware based on his hardware design. So I don’t think you can “inform” anyone that they can’t do that.
They already violate several OS license from other libraries they use in their project so it is funny to see how they threaten others then they don’t keep up with their problems themselves
Fair use of a trademark does not exist. Fair use is a concept associated with copyright (which allows you, for example, to make copies of pages of a book at a university library and not get sued by the author - that is fair use for academic purposes). Vedder is not well counselled and this is precisely why his trademark gets weaker everyday that passes. These concepts are all very specific and you need advice by professionals if you start venturing into IP enforcement and protection.
I would be very interested in seeing the letter that Trampa sent you if you wouldn’t mind sending me a copy.
I have an attorney that I havenoaid a significant sum to look at the so called trademark and fair use rights that Trampa/Frank claims. It’s all a bunch of smoke, no substance. I was waiting for the Trampa boot before I released the info, I may go ahead and do that.
Anyways, I would very much like to show a copy of this letter to my attorney. Thanks
My objective is to shut that shit down if be every tried to drop the boot in the US. To do that, gotta have a lawyer. I’ve got friend here and everywhere that are not very legla savy, this is more of a ounlic service than anything.
I just wish we could compile a collection of all of Trampas missteps and mishandlings of the VESC project and post it to the front page so all member can see
I’m always happy to give probono advice to guys around here. If you or they have any legal questions, just send them my way. Save the money for a nice board Cheers,
A
I just wanna say I’m.proud if all you fuckers. I felt like I was the only one fighting against this for a long time, almost let it go a few times. I’m glad see you stepping up and taking the risk to fight against abuses in the marketplace.
Totally understand man. Unless you breathe in and out these concepts day in and day out, it’s very hard to wrap your head around quickly. Many nuances. Hence my long posts, it’s just very hard to vulgarise. Problem is that I see a lot of people saying non-true stuff about IP. You can’t “wing” IP, you just can’t. And what I’ve seen here is someone winging it.
PS: and thanks for ordering! We can’t wait to hear what you think of it in the flesh.
Whats so funny is that when someone posts “shame” style threads it goes noticed right away. Still @trampa send pm and posts on here with his scare tactics and bullshit no one contacts him about it. Hhhmmmm. It might just be me noticing these things. I’m with the peeps on this one. I would suggest going to legal counsel just to see what’s what’s up with this crap @trampa is doing. @stewii look into it we all know your ESCape is awesome and different in its own way not an exact copy still take some time to look into this Info
@trampa somehow thinks they own the idea of a rectangular box with wires coming out of it. Which is ridiculous because prior art goes way back into the 1800s.
This is akin to Frank sending a black van to your house filled with armed thugs, and it says a lot about him.
Reminds me some video series 