CEBEP

I wander why people call Brompton copies as clones but Rolex clones as homage? Here is example of homage watches. Also a clone Brompton is considered as bad thing while Rolex clones, called homage watches are fine.

Schwinnsta

There is no difference. Where did you hear there was?

tds101 

It's all about paying royalties to the original company.

CEBEP

Homage watch producers pay no royalties if that’s what you’ve meant.

tds101 

Either way the company who is the design initiator receives some form of compensation,...

CEBEP

In case I mentioned above, Rolex receives no compensation from Submariner homage producers.

tds101 

The company will still receive sales based off of the recognition and promotion of their mentioned/copied brand. Clones deny the fact they're not original, and refuse to acknowledge the brand of the original design.

“respect or reverence paid or rendered”

CEBEP

I’m not sure I can understand your point. Homages are copies. If same logic is applied then Brompton copies help drive Brompton sales too and should be called homages.

I also seriously doubt that Submariner homages help drive it’s sales. Considering you can’t buy a new Submariner without entering a long waiting list anyways.

tds101 

And there is the point that you seem to ignore. Again, a homage acknowledges the creator, where the clone ignores the initiator of the original. It's a "point of contention" that's been debated nonstop. Waiting lists are irrelevant. It's the recognition, or lack thereof, that makes it an issue (including legal proceedings).

CEBEP

Few Rolex Submariner homage product pages that first come to my mind:

link to Invicta Men's 89260B Pro Driver.

Another one: Steinhart Ocean One BLACK Diver Watch

Another example is Squale Y1545 20 Atmos.

Please point me to the part in the listing page where they acknowledge the creator.

tds101 

Homage,...what don't you comprehend? Apparently you're exactly the type of person that likes to debate semantics. Discussion is over.

CEBEP

Yep, I thought so.

CEBEP

Even more interesting is the fact that a Rolex Submariner clone from China would be called a copy or clone and from a EU brand - homage.

tcs

Trifold bikes based on the Andrew Ritchie design I've run across: 3Sixty, Aceoffix, Afluen, Aleoca, Alps, B-bike, Backer Gravity, Beiou, Benotto Volga, Billiton, Burke 20, Camp, Chedech, Cigna, Cranage, Crius, Crosshead, Dahon Curl, Elements Pikes, Fova, Garcia, Grace Gallant Flamingo, Groo M3, Harry Quinn, Iruka, Java Neo, Jcat, Kinetics, Kreuz, La Bici, Leggero, Liaoge666, Litepro, Luigino, Mantell, Mint, MIT, Mobot, Movebike, Oltre, Oyama, Panlova, Pico, Pytitans, Sanye, South Point, Sunrimoon, Ti Atom, United, Viking X, Week Eight.

"There are certain parts of the brand that can be protected by lawyers. We have comparatively few patents, which may surprise people, but it makes sense when you think about it. The fundamental design of the folding mechanism is long since out of patent, as it was invented in 1975, and for most of the improvements we've made since then, we have preferred not to provide the world with a detailed technical description of how we make things better (and spend a large amount on patent lawyers in order to do so). Nobody else is allowed to call their bike a Brompton, or to use a similar word in a similar font. We have gone to court in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain to protect the 'three dimensional trademark' of the overall shape of the Brompton so that if someone else invents a different kind of folding bike, they can't make it look too like ours; this has been appealed all the way up to the European Court of Justice and may one day be ruled on there." - Will Butler-Adams

Other widely 'homaged' folders include the Dahon bifolds.

tds101 

Keep thinking then,...

Fentuz

actually, they are called Knock off. 😜

joey buzzard

I've never heard the term "Homage" applied to fake Rolex watches. When I lived in Hong Kong there used to be a division of the police concerned with "counterfeit" luxury goods. "Counterfeit" is the term I'm accustomed to. Mind you, if the counterfeiters are rebranding their wares as "homage" then fair play to them, I guess.

tcs

Hmm. I'd think to be a counterfeit, the manufacturer/seller would have to be fraudulently passing the item off as the real thing. That's much different from manufacturing a design that's no longer patent protected, not using branding that's copyrighted/trademarked.

CEBEP

I am, all the time. You should try it.

CEBEP

I wasn’t talking about fake watches. Fake watches are Rolex copies branded as Rolex but not produced by Rolex. I was talking about exact same design but with producer’s own brand name. Here is example.

tds101 

No, it's exactly the opposite. Enjoy the bolex discussion.

kraftwerk 

If you have a fake Rolex it can be taken from you at the boarder when you cross into Switzerland, and they'll destroy it. These things happen to protect Swiss Brand's.
I am really tempted to try this sometime...I have an el Cheapo Rolex from the 90's (long since stopped working !)

CEBEP

Nobody checks your wrist watch upon entering Switzerland

I wander if anyone ever seen a Brompton copy? I mean bike made by some other manufacturers but branded as Brompton? If not all clones are technically homages I guess, not copies.

Winfried

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderlust

tcs

I've seen some trifolds with British flag decals and even CHPT3 paint schemes, but AFAIK none branded Brompton or using Brompton's font (both trademarked).

There are any number of unauthorized t-shirts available on the internet bearing Brompton logos and graphics. Apparently, Brompton allows that for the advertising value they get from it (?).




Brompton did have that well-documented trouble with jackleg subcontractor Neobike back in the 1990s. IIRC even Neobike's owners' manual was a photocopy of the Brompton owners' manual!



Fun fact: As Andrew Ritchie started negotiations with Eurotai to build Neobike-Bromptons in Taiwan, Dr. Hon called him up and said, "You don't want to do business with those guys." In a decision that would haunt Brompton for over a decade, that advice was dismissed.