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I see that Staun are taking a stance against UK rip-offs

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datalas:
It depends on a lot of factors, and please try to not forget that legal activities are costly,

I'm not speaking about this particular case by name and don't try to assume that the players involved are the same but a common tactic for a company to use with a smaller engineering firm is to increase your orders until such a point as the company in question is entirely dependent upon your trade.  

Then you can either force them to cut their prices (otherwise they lose all your trade and a good portion of their income) or you go elsewhere, happy in the knowledge that the dent in the cashflow will probably force them to forgo legal recourse.  Yes, they may get awarded damages, but if they've gone bust in the in between then well, it doesn't do them much good.

As for the point about not buying cheap knock off copies, yes the point is valid and there is a degree of hypocrisy involved however you have to (hopefully) appreciate that perhaps the detail which makes allegations of this nature more incepid is that there was a level of trust established in terms of the supplier / reseller relationship which previously existed and the originating company would have enjoyed the reputation that goes along with that relationship and the products.

I'm not saying that the alegation here is true, but imagining that it is for just a second or two,  Scorpion will have built up a reputation for their tyre deflators, based upon the work by Staun.  People will then associate Scorpion (not Staun) with good quality tyre deflation stuff,  to then change supplier once you have established that relationship will traumatise the other side,  especially when there are indications that the replacement product is a carbon copy of your design.

The other manner in which this sort of tactic becomes questionable is when you consider why they would have changed supplier in the first place,  if there is nothing perceivably wrong with the product in the first place then it's usually about cost cutting,  but has the price of the product from the newer supplier dropped to the consumer ?  I don't know, but I have my suspicions.

The other issue at hand here is this is the second allegation of this nature aimed at Scorpion this year alone,  the other example I won't name although I'm sure someone might.   For several months after the relationship broke down the advertisements still showed the original product (if you look closely you can read the original companies logo etched into it),  this is possibly due to the time it takes to change the advert of course, or it could be deceptive marketing practice you can certainly see how it would be perceived as such, especially when they have been accused of similar actions before.

And incidentally, no, I don't have anything from Scorpion and yes, I do own the "original" equipment ...

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