ORIGINAL: dawolf

Thanks Foxy for opening this thread up.

Personally, I want to throw my hat in the ring and say that cloning is good for any business. PERIOD. It is good for HPI, it is good for the sport, that is my opinion and I can back it up with plenty of historic examples. Besides I don't think HPI even has any kind of Patent protecting the design of the 5b. If a product begins to be a big seller, big enough to warrant a "cloning" from a cloning company in China, then that means that usually means that company has a large market share and someone thinks that there is a big market yet to be tapped (with lower priced clones). This is simply the worlds way of keeping companies honest and holding them to task and to create some good competition, maybe inspire them to make improved designs and maybe even lower priced offerings.
I understand the whole thing about engineering and designs being ripped off is not a good thing for manufacturers, but really it is more of a wake up call. It is consumers saying, "Nice product, I would buy it, but I either can't afford it or it is not worth that much to me, however if it were 25-50% less, I'll take 2!" I work in the Pharma Industry alot as a consultant and most people say they should not be allowed to sell medecine for that much, "they are getting rich, and we are paying the price" Pharmaceutical companies sell their pills that keep some of us alive for $5-$10 per pill they have a right, after all they did all the research and development didn't they? And wait they do have legal patents. But guess what, those legal patents expire after 7-10 years and then the "generic companies" come in and make the same drugs, but give them to us for $.50 per pill, how dare they. Wow now the Pharmas know they have to reinvest that money into making a new drug that they could sell for 7-10 years and make alot of money.