And that’s what I feel like is happening… People will associate the VESC only with what trampa sells. We have all put work into that name. It’s actually the community that named it the VESC, not even vedder. I have written articles, compiled data, and built apps for the VESC. I have put countless hours into helping shape the brand name of the VESC. Now, I can’t get any of the benefits brand recognition, of a name that I have contributed so much to propagate? It feels like trampa is sucking up all of the hard work of the community, cuase lets face it, the VESC would still be in the stone ages without the community. It’s because it’s been open source, and widely shared, that it has progressed from nothing to the eskate community standard in less than 2 years…
…only because he PURCHASED the right to do it.
That’s what pisses me off, he didn’t actually do any of the work. Its guys like @onloop & @torqueboards that developed the VESC market and guys like you and @Ackmaniac that developed the aftermarket.
I didn’t do anything except burn up a couple trying to figure out how build bad ass rocket boards. I will claim that in spending my time and money, doing build logs and talking to people about methods and equipment, I have done my share to increase the use of the VESC in powered board building…but so have a thousand other people, all of which have done more than Frank.
And that’s my point. The entire community gets shitted on by trampa, because they have an opportunity to make a quick buck. They can say they spent x, y, and z on it. But at the end of the day, it’s an investment for them, not some favor out of the kindness of their hearts. They saw an opportunity to make a quick buck, not help the community. Because this doesn’t help anyone but trampa.
Just gonna quote that for posterity, I don’t think I could have said it better.
so it’s now the EFMC?
FKV gets my vote
It’s just frustrating because being in software, I see this happen ALL of the time. The AT&T and Comcast is just one example. I’m sick of business men coming into my industry to rape and pillage us. WE are the ones that build shit, you are the ones that tear shit down and make a quick buck on our work. It’s frustrating to say the least to think how much better off we’d be without all of these legalities in the Software industry… Are you going to sit down and solve these complicated mathematical nightmares we deal with on a daily basis? Why do you think you can come in and make more than we do on our work?
I feel your pain brother. It’s disgusting. You have some vendors/builders who do really great work, make innovations and offer them for a reasonable price. Then we have others that come in just to make a quick buck and no worries over who they screw in the process.
I finished up an data/study app for a customer about a year ago. Still haven’t been paid completely, and just found out he sold it for 2mil. The new owner is calling me to get changes. My response has been “sure, as soon as I get paid the last 2 rounds of changes”.
I just hope that BV is not aware of how this has been handled and is going to get involved at some point. I cannot imagine that he would condone this.
you too?!
I actually just today bought a pair of ves- uh, Enertion FOCBOXes! Gotta get it right, I might just start calling them Effs for simplicity’s sake.
Anyway, I may have been one of the last to buy them before the site was updated, thus they were still called the-box-that-shall-not-be-named.
And since no one besides you seems to have made a joke yet about “the box-formerly-known-as-” I’m just gonna put it out there. Well played sir.
Edit: apparently I went to enertion.com without thinking, saw at a glance it had changed, and assumed…
yeah, they’re still called… y’know, that other thing.
What in FOC is happening here?
I love it. You should change all of the word “VESC” in the existing threads here in the forum to avoid confusing the new people @onloop.
:slight_smile_i_wish_a_bigger_DBAG_comes_along_and_puts_a_TM_on_mountainboard_and_tell_trampa_they_can_no_longer_sell_em_big_smile;
It’s the great trademark war of 2017
LOL - well eMTB has technically already been coined by the Electric Mountain Bike community! 
It’s the great even of 2017… like the great crash of 2016…
I really agree with the sentiment that members of the community have made the VESC what it is today. My first VESC setup was awesome… for two years ago, but nothing like my board today. @Ackmaniac and his firmware changed everything for me. Better acceleration control, and better braking make a better VESC and @Ackmaniac’s contributions were possible because the VESC software is/was open source. Benjamin deserves credit and reward for his contribution to our little industry. I just want to say thank you to all of the rest of you that contributed as well.
Whilst I do 100% agree with everything you are saying, Sadly it’s just not how the business world works.
Marketing a business (or product) & Building brand recognition is similar to playing a game of chess. Trampa are positioning themselves to try and win the game (as any for-profit business should), but this is just one move and the game is only just beginning. I suspect there will be more moves to come… think software restrictions.
I must say that I am VERY surprised that “VESC” was able to be trademarked. The trademark attorney that processed this application obviously didn’t do a thorough search or have an understanding about the mark being used as a common Verb, or its origins! So without opposition (yes we all could have opposed this), it got approved. But it doesn’t matter now it’s done!
Furthermore, anyone could have trademarked the name VESC. Beto, the guy who coined the term could have, I could have done it, you could have too or Maytech for that matter. So at least Ben Vedder has got it now. I think that is probably the best situation.
So moving forward, Ben Vedder now owns VESC and we can’t change it. Yes it is true that various vendors have spent THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS marketing that name and spent countless hours writing articles & doing tutorials and basically running a gigantic beta program to iron out the bugs! … The value we, the community & vendors, have created for that brand is HUGE! I would estimate the VESC brand to be worth over 1 million dollars ¶ in terms of brand revenue, for a few thousand $$ it’s now owned by Ben Vedder (which I think is very fair payment for his work so far) - Ben has achieved this thanks primarily to the guidance of Trampa who are hoping to benefit financially. Frank would not have spent coin if he didn’t think it was a good investment!
THIS IS BASICALLY WHY PEOPLE ARE PISSED OFF
So what do we do now? Do we sit around crying about it? no point doing that.
What I intend on doing is putting my energy into promoting FOCBOX because it is protected we can invest with confidence. We now have control over our destiny and we have the ability to succeed or fail without impacting anyone else livlyhood.
This is actually an amazing feeling!
I am not a gifted electronics engineer, nor am i a coding genius… but i am no doubt one of the most successful business operators, Sales & marketing specialists in this industry.
So for me, this situation is perfect! I love building brands from the ground up & I believe FOCBOX will soon be renowned as the premium & affordable solution for DIY esk8 builders.
We will also be offering some exciting deals for resellers who want to get involved with the FOCBOX brand.
There will also be OEM opportunities for vendors who need hardware manufacturing support.
For once, I think we agree on something 
I’ve sat back so I could actually process this, and today, I felt ready to share my opinion.
I’ll move on and maybe something good will come from this too…
“FOCBOX” = the ex-VESC previously known as the VESC-X.
So does that make us “FOCBOXxers” or “BOXFOCcers”?
I like BOXFOCcer. It feels more natural to me. Like as if I’ve been one my whole life.
You hit the nail on the head here. It really is an opportunity for the community and for you in particular, Jason. A good marketing push will make the name VESC a distant memory. Right now Trampa is bumping the price to cover R&D costs. That means that those building on the open architecture can still produce a similar quality product for a lower price. Combine that with a decent marketing approach for a different trademarked name and Trampa could be left holding a big bag of nothing that they paid for. The question will be whether the software and other hardware innovations still remain open source and shared or will they close the doors on that in the near future. My bet is the latter, but time will tell.
Edit: BTW, you need to update your website. No FOCBOXES to be found
I’ve already updated my esk8.builder app i’m working on to include the new name for the focbox.