When it comes to fun trade shows, Computex Taipei has always topped the list. There, hundreds of technology vendors show off their latest products, and for someone who loves computer hardware, it’s like being a kid in a candy store. Computex this year however, has been a little different.
As soon as case maker ThermalTake revealed their new W100 and W200 product line, CaseLabs VP Kevin Keating, went on Facebook to post an angry letter accusing ThermalTake of “stealing” CaseLabs’ product designs.
While it has been pulled, he made a pretty convincing argument as well. For example, the ThermalTake W100 compared to CaseLabs Merlin SM8.
or the CaseLabs TH10 vs ThermalTake W200
While I refrained from jumping into the drama at the time, a number of media outlets quickly jumped in to share their thoughts and the situation quickly blew up. Among the media outlets who jumped on the drama, Legit Reviews published a comprehensive piece on not only the accusations CaseLabs has made against ThermalTake, but also ThermalTake’s rampant stealing of many product designs from many different companies.
While I’ll let you be the judge as to whether any of these accusations have any merit, it appears that CaseLabs has recently issued an apology to ThermalTake regarding the accusations made by CaseLabs VP Kevin Keating.
In the apology, CaseLabs states that they do not actually own any patents on their case designs and have apologized for the accusations they’ve made against ThermalTake.
What do you think of the matter? Should companies be allowed to produce “copycat” designs of other products as long as there’s no patent protecting it? Post a comment below!
Looks like the lawyers got rolled out by Thermaltake.
Irrespective it seems clear that thermaltakes new business model is aimed at purely copying other peoples ideas and not innovating at all, which is the real issue that thermaltake needs to address. I won’t be buying anything thermaltake until that point, I’d rather pay the innovators and purchase better quality products.