philcycles wrote:

These mics are usually stolen designs going out the back door of the
factory. Is that something that yuo'd like to be involved in? One of
the magazines-Mix?-has a letter from a mic designer detailing just such
a deal.

I found that letter kind of amusing. Nady took a US-made ribbon mike,
sent it to a Chinese factory and told them, "make some mikes like this."
The Chinese folks adapted that design, made it look a little different,
but then started turning them out, even copying the packaging of the
original mike and the numbers on the spec sheet.

Then, the folks at that factory started turning out the same mike for
other people, or alternatively they showed another factory how to make
them. Then they showed up on these shores under other names.

Mr. Nady is upset about this, because he thought they had an exclusive
on the design, in spite of the design first of all being a copy of an
American design, and secondly in spite of that same factory having a long
history of doing exactly that same thing.

Guys, if you send an exclusive design to China for manufacturing, it's not
going to be exclusive any more. If you teach the factory in China a
particular technique, soon other factories there will be using the same
technique.

From the standpoint of rapid technological advance, this is a good thing,
and it is the reason why Chinese products have improved substantially in
such a short amount of time. From the standpoint of intellectual property
rights, it's a terrible thing. But it's a fact, and it's been a fact for
so long that I can't imagine anyone would be so naive as to outsource
production without expecting it.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Scott Dorsey wrote:

I found that letter kind of amusing. Nady took a US-made ribbon mike,
sent it to a Chinese factory and told them, "make some mikes like this."
The Chinese folks adapted that design, made it look a little different,
but then started turning them out, even copying the packaging of the
original mike and the numbers on the spec sheet.

Even that is a bit of a stretch. I'm pretty sure that Alctron was
designing and/or making some of these designs before Nady even
approached them.

Then, the folks at that factory started turning out the same mike for
other people, or alternatively they showed another factory how to make
them. Then they showed up on these shores under other names.

Mr. Nady is upset about this, because he thought they had an exclusive
on the design, in spite of the design first of all being a copy of an
American design, and secondly in spite of that same factory having a long
history of doing exactly that same thing.

One of Alctron's customers (and it may well be Nady) is trying very hard
to intimidate Alctron into refusing to do business with the cooperative
group that is trying to purchase mics from them. It's an interesting
scenario. He may even succeed, but at what cost to his reputation?