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Comment by baybal2 | Hacker News Reader

One interesting thing to note. You might've seen countless GoPro "clones," and might've been wondering why GoPro never seemed to assert their rights.

What is said in Shenzhen is that original digital GoPros themselves were an off the shelf OEM product, and GoPro never bothered to buy the design rights from their OEM.

Does anybody remember Daisy Photoclip from around year 2002? Their OEM had their hand in that. And yes, Daisy Photoclip was as Bulgarian as Iphone was American

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There are countless X "clones" for any popular (and even unpopular!) consumer electronics devices. Apple certainly asserts their rights and yet you can still buy knockoff iPhones and even visit knockoff physical Apple Stores.

What do you want to say here? I don't understand.

Probably that it's a fight one can't "win". Better focus on the brand and making people aware of it and it's benefits.

My point is that they never bought the right for the design from OEM from whom they bought their first digital cameras, and that OEM itself never bothered to limit access to the design as it makes no money to them.

I don't think the rights to a 10-year-old design have much to do with what GoPro and their copycats are selling now. Knockoffs are everywhere, especially where the market-defining product has a large margin.

And my point is that has nothing to do with why there are cheap knockoffs as there are cheap knockoffs of all well known consumer electronics (fake iPhones even come out before the real iPhones!).

> "might've been wondering why GoPro never seemed to assert their rights."

That it has nothing to do with asserting rights, how the original product was developed or anything GoPro has done since. It's just how the world works.

It's how the world works after 50 years of American CEOs shipped all of their employer's IP to China in return for the margin boost that would give them a better stock option bonus for the 5-7 years before they could wash their hands of the company.

Thanks. I have this same view for a long time.

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