Quote:
Originally posted by sjm817
It great how the Chinese knock off everything like Tunze Streams, skimmers etc. I'm sure the cone skimmer wont be far behind. Hopefully, there will sill be companies left around innovating to get their designs ripped off.
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The KZ revolutions come from Taiwan, cant knock off something that comes from there in the first place!!!
Innovation is a key part of why US and EU mfg's have always kept ahead of the curve with cheap labor. Many asian 'knock-off' companies dont know the first thing about innovation... thats why they just copy everything.
So the the rest of the world has to innovate faster than they can copy... with such a small and slow market like this though... who knows if thats even possible. The ability of smaller mfg's to make fast changes/improvements... and to fill custom design requests is what will keep companies like ATB and ORCA ahead of the curve.
If the dollar keeps dropping though, importing from China may not even make sense... and then buying US made will make more sense again. As China becomes more of a free-market, and standards of living increase (although the communist system does cast some doubt), things from China will no longer be so cheap. Globalization will come full circle at some point and everything evens out in the end.
As far as patents go... there is nothing patented about these skimmers. There were rumors about ATI's threadwheel being patented, but that wasnt true (since they arent even the first anyways). The bubble plate, well, lets just say its Klaus's biggest regret that he never patented it way back when he had the chance. But patenting some of these things, with such a small volume market, only serves to drive the cost up quickly, and just having a patent doesnt mean thats it. You have to take someone to court to actually enforce it, and even at that, you may or may not win. Patents that are very simple, like the whole 'cone body' would most likely be lost all together if it went to court. Expert testimony would result in the finding that cone shape body skimmers have been around long before KZ came up with it. And which do you think looks better in that situation? To have a patent that you can at least threaten people with, or to lose it all together?
I doubt there will be any technology with skimming that will be patentable any time soon, if ever. I wouldnt even consider my 'bubble sphere' something to patent, as innovative as it might be... its just not worth it. Hooking up a peltier system to a skimmer to give the body a static charge might be something rather radical though... if its proven to work. According to some like Klaus, this is important.