i find this... odd about Techlasers:

[Nordhavn]

I'm sorry, but I see no real reason to believe that the crossfire lasers are clones. Plenty of resoning against it though. I'll admit the WL and Techlasers are fishy, a bit stupid, quite dishonest, etc. but I don't understand all this fuss about clones.

The "exclusive" companies are afraid of competition.

 

[marianne]

the thing is - if a laser company (say, laserglow) has a hand in designing a laser, ie it is partly their own custom design, and that's the impression i strongly get from what justin says, then one of two things are happening - a clone manufacturer is ripping off laserglow's own design, and selling it, or - CNI (or whoever made the lasers) is leaking laserglow's design to others. if it is partially laserglow's design then laserglow should (ethically and legally) have partial copyright on it, and be able to say who can and can't use it. if it's just a generic design then it's not such a problem, but...

 

[Milos]

the thing is - if a laser company (say, laserglow) has a hand in designing a laser, ie it is partly their own custom design, and that's the impression i strongly get from what justin says, then one of two things are happening - a clone manufacturer is ripping off laserglow's own design, and selling it, or - CNI (or whoever made the lasers) is leaking laserglow's design to others. if it is partially laserglow's design then laserglow should (ethically and legally) have partial copyright on it, and be able to say who can and can't use it. if it's just a generic design then it's not such a problem, but...

I agree. That is the bottom line of this whole topic.

If there is no copyright on particular design, than it could be just a CNI decision to expand sales through WL/TL customers. That is sound business decision and will increase sales ten fold very fast. Huge profit increase for 3 of them - horrible blow to LaserGlow and Optotronics.

ps.
Has anyone actually asked CNI directly whats up?

 

[7histology]

yeah, it would be good to know what CNI says.

 

[Justin]

There is a legally binding exclusivity contract for the Hercules which we entered into with CNI when we began the design process. Obviously I cannot post it here but you can ask CNI directly if you're still curious.

 

[marianne]

There is a legally binding exclusivity contract for the Hercules which we entered into with CNI when we began the design process. Obviously I cannot post it here but you can ask CNI directly if you're still curious.

that would appear to settle it, then. as the design is at least partially your own, do you have (possibly joint) copyrights over it?