A software developer made a Chrome and Firefox extension called Knockoff that automatically hides, grays out, or filters products from sketchy brands on Amazon, which highlights just how many shady brands are on the platform and how commonly they show up on searches for basic items.
They do own the IP though and I dont know how we feel about physical product IP rights? Those are kinda useful.
That’s not how it works. Factory makes Thing. Anyone who wants to resell Thing buys it from the factory and labels it BRAND Thing.
Yeah but someone has to design the thing
Lots of factories design things. This isn’t the 80s. The factories are often a complete firm with design, R&D teams, etc. It’s what ODMs are and they exist for all things, simple and cheap to complex and expensive.
Yes but aren’t people entitled to revenue of the brand they build? And I dont mean Nike here but something like a band selling their t shirts etc. The copying in chinese manufacturing is going too far to the point where it’s a net negative on our society and I say this as someone who’s generally anti copyright.
Making new tech innovation is such a gamble these days - you only have a few months to make back money you spent on your initial design because manufacturers just overpower you eventually unless you make it not worth it for them through explicit brand protection strategies. It’s such a waste of everyone’s resources and stiffles human effort overall.
That being said i think the most realistic answer here is in house manufacturing which is becoming more and more acessible but still a long road to go, especially in more complex niches like electronics. You either ship a competitively priced product and hope you make your effort back in a few months or build in house for 3x the market price and even then get only a bit more than those few months. It’s not a healthy, just environment no matter how you look at it.
It could be designed by company A and made in Factory A, then designers at factory A come up with a way to cut costs and make a worse design that is similar to company A’s design but slightly worse and much cheaper, then the factory makes that, and drop shippers sell it.
A lot of times we’re talking about something that was actually designed in the 80s or 90s, maybe not even by a company that exists anymore or in the same country where it’s currently being produced.
No I dont think that’s true statistically speaking. My cousin works in brand protection and IP theft of contemporary creators is by far the majority. I’m generally a free software and anti copyright but manufacturing theft is really pushing me in favor of copyright here. Most of it is so incredibly blatant and bad faith - it’s not a good thing unless it’s actually a practical device like medicine or something.
The Chinese design-manufacturing-retail pipeline isn’t like what it is in the West. There aren’t nearly as many “bespoke” products made for a single company.