We first covered in full the RED Vs Wooden Camera civil court case HERE. Now RED have spoken out about their issues with 3rd party companies, inventions and designs, patents and trademarks. Read what Jim Jannard and Jared Land had to say on REDUser:
It takes manpower to pull off an inventor or designer’s concept. The process to create is not cheap. The customer ultimately has to pay for the design and development. But he is rewarded with something special and worthwhile.
To copy is cheap. Duplicate. Rip off. Take the efforts of a team and replicate. It takes just one person. Maybe China to make it. All you have to do is make the decision. Of course it is cheaper. The hard work has already been done.
The problem here is that if this is allowed, the inventor quits. There is no reason for more creativity. The inventor now has no motivation to create. The copier wins in the short term. The customer loses in the long term.
Almost everything that I have ever invented or created has been copied or duplicated. Every handgrip. Every sunglass. Even stickers and t-shirts. And now camera accessories. Soon REDCODE.
So why create? How do you stop this?
If you file a lawsuit to protect your interests and your team… you are “heavy handed”. Really?
At RED, and at Oakley, we embraced those that added value to what we have created. And we kicked the shit out of those that just decided to rip us off. Pretty easy stuff to understand.
If you want RED to continue to innovate… we need you to understand that we can’t give away the fort. No company that stays in business for any length of time can allow other companies to take what they have created and duplicate it.
We are in the business of delivering the future. I think we have done a pretty good job of this. And we have just begun. If you want, or expect us to continue… you will understand that we will not stand for others to simply duplicate what we have invested countless hours and money to create.
We are not the big guys in this industry. We are the underdogs. We are doing what the big companies would NEVER do.
So make your decision to support us… or not. Your decision will determine if we move forward and create, or not.
Jim Jannard
We love 3rd parties. We have great relationships with a lot of great companies that make tons of great products that help our customers work with our system. They add value to the program. It is good for our community. Our position will never change on this one. In fact.. if you look around there are probably more companies making accessories for RED than any other professional camera out there, and we love that. We even open our engineers to 3rd parties and test their products against potential electro-mechanical issues. Companies such as Element Technica, Anton Bauer, 3ality, Cameron-Pace, Oconnor , Action Products, Gates, Optitek, AirSeaLand, Allstar, Maxx Digital, Dozens of 3rd party mount manufactures, and many many more.
What we don’t like is 3rd parties “borrowing” our designs or creating products that interfere with how our camera works.
Patents and Trademarks are part of RED’s DNA. We defend them vigorously. Developing RED products requires inventing technology or generating designs that didn’t exist, many of which we were awarded patents. We are very proud of that.. and not only the hard stuff.. but even the simple ideas. We also license various pieces of technology, and we are glad to pay those rightful inventors royalties. It is the right thing to do. Stealing innovation or design is not something that we believe in, especially serving an industry who’s backbone is built from creation. Jarred Land
We would love them to be involved in the RED community… just with innovative products. We don’t have issues with every part they make. Apparently they weren’t willing to discuss the situation… hence the lawsuit.
If you don’t protect intellectual property… you lose it.
Jim
Please visit RED and REDuser for more information on the latest. Check in to Wooden Camera as well.