Chinese knockoff engineering spurs legal action

Rich Rohrich

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From a Sherco Press Release sent today :

By means of the mass media, Sherco has become aware of the launch of a trials motorcycle that is practically identical to one that has been designed, tested, manufactured and marketed exclusively by Sherco.
We are positive that the motor, the chassis and accessories of this motorcycle are identical to the Sherco motorcycle. This is not a mere coincidence, but rather a choice to take advantage of the extensive Research and Development done by Sherco. We also believe that they are intentionally trying to cause confusion in the marketplace among the fans of the sport.
Sherco has invested many years in the development of the trials motorcycle in order to offer our clients the very best products that are constantly evolving. Sherco has NOTHING to do with the promotion of this new motorcycle which is being manufactured in China. In some areas it is being promoted as though it were a second Sherco brand with the clear intention of causing confusion and doubts. For this reason Sherco is making public that we have had nothing to do with this copy and that we never authorized its production.
Sherco is at this time preparing the appropriate legal actions to require the company in question to respect the rights of Sherco and discontinue the production of this product.
Furthermore we will insist that Sherco will not be responsible for the operation of the motorcycles of this brand, nor will we be responsible for any warranty repairs or defects associated with this or any other brand.
The objective of Sherco is to offer its clients and all the users of our motorcycles the best product available with the very best quality.
Sherco products have been proven in the highest levels of international competitions and continue to be developed through an ongoing research and development program. The result is an innovative high quality product that has earned us a well deserved high level of international prestige.
Currently the Sherco Catalog is very extensive with six trials models and several moped models in both enduro and SuperMotard versions. There are two full size Enduro models with corresponding SuperMotard models. But the Sherco evolution continues to forge ahead; in 2008 we expect to see the final establishment of the Sherco 3.2 4T Trials model after some years of transition.
The sports successes in 2007 at the hands of Graham Jarvis, Christophe Braund and Dani Oliveras in prestigious events in Great Britain, France and Spain have shown that Sherco has come of age and have achieved international recognition.

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I hope Sherco crushes them like a bug. :cool:
 

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Patman

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Is the picture of the real or ripoff bike Rich?
 

adam728

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Awesome.

I hate all the Chinese copy houses. I work for a company that makes carburetors, flywheels, ignitions, and a lot of other stuff. I always hear about all the legal battles we are waging against places over there ripping off our deisgns. Unfortunately it sounds as though most the battles can't be won.
 

Patman

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The Chinese manufacturers generally do not come up with ideas themselves, typically it is driven by an outside force (company) looking to make a profit from the design efforts of another. They take a complete unit (in this case a bike) and have it reverse engineered by engineers some of which have been schooled in the US & Europe! It has been my experience that the rate of improvement of quality of materials and workmanship is on a VERY fast rate of climb so I'm not totally suprised.

The sad part of all of this is that many manufacturers complain about the systems faults but also use the system because it is cheaper to get their product. Yamaha TTR50, Volvo S40, and a massive amount of dirt bike accessories all are produced in China.
 

Rich Rohrich

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That picture is the REAL one Pat.
 

RM_guy

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What happens more often is that US manufactures outsource molding, casting, machining etc to China and they in turn produce twice as many parts. Half to go back to the US and the other half to sell as Chinese brands. It's easier and faster than reverse engineering. There are lots of horror stories about companies that were forced to go off shore for the bottom line and now they are fighting competition that they created. A lot of US molding companies that I work with to mold our parts use offshore molders and I am always leery to put too much business with them for fear of loosing any replacement part business.
 

Patman

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Yes, and it happens all the time. Why? $$ is the bottom line. Look at pivoting levers aka unbreakable levers. Who came up with the idea? Arc? ASV? The company in China that sent me samples of their version? Another perfect example was the same manufacturer send me some aluminum footpegs in various anodized colors. This was to show the true coloring of each version. Well the black ones happened to have a well known brand name etched in them because yes this company was also sypplying them. For a long time Honda put a patent on everything, any little thing they could for this very reason. IMO they might have taken it a bit too far but it's their deal. Then look at a company like Volvo. Why? They spend truckloads of money and development effort on safety yet they always leave their designs open to other companies to use for the safety of the population.

Now ya' know what else is sad and is actually the EXACT same thing? Stealing copy righted material such as music, video, printed text and software yet I bet it's a lot more common.
 

dirtbikingdad

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Patman said:
Now ya' know what else is sad and is actually the EXACT same thing? Stealing copy righted material such as music, video, printed text and software yet I bet it's a lot more common.

What is really sad is that the ones who are paying for music are almost considered stupid.... ttt

I hate all that Chinese knock off stuff. Whenever I go into Harbor Freight, I feel like I'm putting anothe American out of work. Which is probably not too far off.
 
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whenfoxforks-ruled

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During most of the day I physically do plumbing,I seen a chinese knock off of a Toto(chinese company) toilet,3.5 gallon flush! How the hell did this even get in this country? It worked just as crappy as its original! Gerber plumbing,outsourced to china,and the list goes on! Exactly how is this helping America?
 

Patman

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whenfoxforks-ruled said:
Exactly how is this helping America?
Thank Walmart and all the people that think they are getting a good deal for a large part of it.
 

dirtbikingdad

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We're killing ourselves. From the consumer who wants cheap goods and from companies who want a big fat bottom line that pleases stock holders. Think about it. You use to buy milk for $1 a gallon, 25 years ago. At that same time, a 19" color TV was $150. Today, that same milk is $3 and the TV is $150. Hmmm.... what happened? Slave labor and China.

How about those wonderful call centers. They save you BIG money and you can talk to a "person" instead of a machine. I have yet to hear anyone happy that spoke to some Indian girl (in India) named Rhonda or some Indian guy (in India) named Ross. Get what I'm saying here? It cuts American jobs and makes it cheaper and more profitable. Have you seen how Dubai is growing? Indoor snow skiing and the worlds largest mall. How did that happen? 2 guesses and first one doesn't count. :whoa:

Finally, what about the mayor from Florida who wants to ban all goods from China in his city? We could all do that, but it would be almost impossible. You better not have kids, because they won't get hardly any toys. How about our riding pants and gear. Have you checked the label? Geez! I read in the paper a month or so ago where a lady, who now has a book, tried not to buy anything from came even remotely from China. The article said that her kids basically did not get toys and food was very difficult to find that was not made from something from China. Even the freeze dried strawberries in cereal are from China!!! :yell: :uh:
 
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