Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

When you make an aftermarket product for modding something, there is always the risk that the manufacturer of that something will choose to incorporate the mod.

Black (only) ABS plastic made on a 3-D printer ... a serviceable part at a fair price.
But Frank's original Treble Bezel is an Injection-Molded & Chrome-Plated Work of Fine Art!
It really is like comparing Cherries to Crabapples.
If I wanted inexpensive and serviceable, I wouldn't have bought a Rickenbacker.

Whilst I applaud RIC protecting their IP, I think it's a bit hypocritical to blatantly steal someone else's product.

Do the right thing, RIC!

Korladis wrote:When you make an aftermarket product for modding something, there is always the risk that the manufacturer of that something will choose to incorporate the mod.

But Ric isn't incorporating the mod. They're copying someone else's product. Having the instruments available from the factory with the bezel installed would be incorporating the mod, but they're not doing that.

Guys, thanks for the support! It’s really moving, how many emails I have received from current and past customers regarding their displeasure of the situation.
I for one am moving on, and the support has made it much easier to do so.
I believe in the free market, and I believe in my product. I think over time the best products and service will prevail.
I have first inventor rights, so I can never be forced to stop making the bezels by legal means.
As I mentioned earlier, this isn’t so much a legal issue as it is a moral/ business ethics issue. Ric has stooped to Chinese business ethics on this one, it's the hypocrisy which I think is the most vexing.
There are other manufactures that have taken note of great aftermarket products and either Licensed or struck a supply deal.
Fender with The Badass bridge. Ibanez with the Floyd Rose tremolo. Many guitar makers using Grover or Schaller tuners,etc…. I could go on and on.
There are many examples of Licensing and/or supply deals in the bike industry as well. Bicycle brands, like Trek or Specialized, for example, do not make their own drives trains, instead they have supply deals and ship their bikes with Shimano or Sram drivetrains.

This isn't the first time I have had a design copied.
I have another company as well, F3 Cycling. We’re a small startup I and two other friends partnered and created a couple of years ago. We’re all about creating innovative products and designing/manufacturing them here in the states. We have multiple tools running multiple products, with another one launching mid summer of this year. Our F3 designs are being copied overseas (Europe even) as well. Despite our U.S patents and International trademarks. International patents are VERY expensive and impossible to enforce for small startups like us. Foreign copy cats know this, RIC knows this….

http://www.f3cycling.com



I'm a tool maker by trade and for the last 25 years have been in the tooling, product development and aerospace industry. I
Personally have a few design awards, patents and license agreements, yada, yada.... So I know the drill…
This is just a bezel after all, not a "saving the world" product.
It’s the hypocrisy on RIC’s part, a U.S. company, shafting a very small company that’s making a cool aftermarket product, that’s the most bothersome to me. It could have been approached much differently, but whatever.
That being said, all the support and feedback I have received on this vanquishes the BS. Thanks everyone!

Unbelievable. After all the years of Ric complaining about (and suing) various companies for "trade dress" and IP infringement, they straight up rip off Tubeampology? A little hypocrisy on display?

Frank, if I ever buy one it will be from you.

At a stroke, Ric surrenders the high ground on IP infringement. So much for Hall's High Horse, I think he can climb down off it now and shut his trap about fakers and copycats.

Gilmourisgod wrote:At a stroke, Ric surrenders the high ground on IP infringement. So much for Hall's High Horse, I think he can climb down off it now and shut his trap about fakers and copycats.

They have finally become what they once pursued: selling a copied product at a vastly reduced price! What a nerve!

I wonder how many of those I have seen over the years fawning over John Hall on this site (and the RIC official) will buy one? Nobody's even dared bring the issue up on the RIC forum. Too scared to stand on daddy's toes?

ram wrote:Frank, if I ever buy one it will be from you.

Hell yeah! The Original and still the best.

Frank, I trained thru a Tool & Die Maker Program as well.
(I'm in "High Volume" CNC Production now.)
Our Final project was to design and run an Injection Mold in a Universal Die Set.
We were allowed to make them however we wished. (CNC Contouring or Conventional EDM sinking)
I appreciate the amount of work you had to put into your molds.

I should buy another Bezel for my April '98 Turquoise 4003.
Its nearly factory stock, save for the zero-mod.

The October '92 Mapleglo "S" is my Hot-rod.
I purchased it from a RRF member thru eBay back in the glory days. (Thanks Cole! ... no, you can't have it back.)
I put a Hipshot bridge and Nordenbacker Pickup on it as well as Optima RB Flats.
It came to me with no Bridge cover and Frank's Treble Bezel looks fantastic IMO.
*edit* ... sorry about the shoes. LoL.

sunsetjunk wrote:
There are pictures posted in my store that can be zoomed in on to see the quality of the finish.

http://tubeampology.com/store1/4003-treble-bezels/

Speaking of the Zoom function ... has anyone zoomed in on the RIC Bezel?
Not to pile on but it looks as if someone used a chainsaw to deburr the holes.

Moving forward - I'd like to propose thenceforward Frank's Original Treble Bezel be known as "Frank's GOAT Treble Bezel".
... it just rolls off the tongue, no?

virginplayer wrote:

Gilmourisgod wrote:At a stroke, Ric surrenders the high ground on IP infringement. So much for Hall's High Horse, I think he can climb down off it now and shut his trap about fakers and copycats.

They have finally become what they once pursued: selling a copied product at a vastly reduced price! What a nerve!

I wonder how many of those I have seen over the years fawning over John Hall on this site (and the RIC official) will buy one? Nobody's even dared bring the issue up on the RIC forum. Too scared to stand on daddy's toes?

With your very limited involvement of SIX postings here, you may wanna refrain from insulting members of this or the RIC corporate forum by insinuating that they're some kind of fan boys. This is a very unusual situation, so rather than jump the gun and rush to judgement, I think we all should let this situation play itself out. I for one miss the RIC corporate involvement on this site, and open hostility towards RIC doesn't get us anywhere, and risks making the RRF another version of TalkBass or FaceBook.

virginplayer wrote: They have finally become what they once pursued: selling a copied product at a vastly reduced price! What a nerve!

That, in a nutshell, is a perfect way to sum this up!

OR

The more someone consistently complains about something, the more they are apt to be the ones doing it.

Ric TRCs should really read Hypobacker or Rickocrite.

aceonbass wrote:

virginplayer wrote:

Gilmourisgod wrote:At a stroke, Ric surrenders the high ground on IP infringement. So much for Hall's High Horse, I think he can climb down off it now and shut his trap about fakers and copycats.

They have finally become what they once pursued: selling a copied product at a vastly reduced price! What a nerve!

I wonder how many of those I have seen over the years fawning over John Hall on this site (and the RIC official) will buy one? Nobody's even dared bring the issue up on the RIC forum. Too scared to stand on daddy's toes?

With your very limited involvement of SIX postings here, you may wanna refrain from insulting members of this or the RIC corporate forum by insinuating that they're some kind of fan boys. This is a very unusual situation, so rather than jump the gun and rush to judgement, I think we all should let this situation play itself out. I for one miss the RIC corporate involvement on this site, and open hostility towards RIC doesn't get us anywhere, and risks making the RRF another version of TalkBass or FaceBook.

This.

Yeah guys, thanks for the support, but be civil. Hopefully the Trademark infringement issue will work out. We'll see.