i don't know about copyright laws, but patents are honored in their respective countries, only. that's why its so expensive to file for patents. you have to file in every country that has patent laws.

the violations i see shine has infringed on, would be trademarks. i'm pretty sure "junction produce" is trademarked, so Shine shouldn't be using "Junction Produce style kits" as description. Using photos from Junction Produce is a violation as well.

a gentlemen's agreement will not hold up in the court of law.

 

my prussian blue jdm kit fits perfectly. in fact, it was the first thing the body shop mentioned was how well my kit fitted. so original jdm kits have their benefits.

now without going into too much detail, i did see a replica copy of a jdm kit recently. the owner was not happy about the fitment. so that's a negative aspect of copies right there.

 

Well, in the case of Traffic Star DTMs, though it is a simple design that can be easily replicated, the difference in quality (visually at the very least) is strikingly different.

I think where replica wheels takes away the market share of the original manufacturer is with one-piece wheel designs like some of the BBS and many of the Volks out there. It is just too easy for companies like Rota to knock off Volks TE37s.

 

i cant understand that either. but i guess they dont want to make their name, they want to make someone elses name better.

lol i always laugh when i read your posts, but i rarely if ever can disagree with them ps i agree with everything you have said.

 

i'll be honest, i am thinking about choping up a body kit for my GS, and my first candidate is the VS kit. I can't see buying a 'real' kit just to have it cut up, additional pieces molded in and whatver just so I can say I started off with a 'real' kit. why waste that kind of money. i mean, if then end product looks like neither, whats the harm in the end? should i make a mold of my own kit???

 

I have the JP kit for my UCF11 and the door caps sticks out atleast 10mm more than the sideskirts. It took me alot to make them fit. It's disappointing because I thought originals would fit much better and for the amount of money that I paid for versus the amount of work to make it fit. I would just rather get a better copy.

 

i got a jp replica im happy

 

i thought about this post while at work so let me put my 2 cents. warning: this is my opinion, didnt say that i was correct so dont go flaming me.

I do own the shine kit and i havent found the problem in it (i love it). I didnt buy the kit because i wanted to false ball or anything. the jp kit is a very good looking kit (the reason why i bought the car) but realistically if i buy the, after the kit, install paint and taxes it comes out almost to the car. In this economy that is definitely impractical, especially when over 1 out of 6 driver's on the road are uninsured motorists and insurance companies are now finding ways NOT to pay for your mods even if the other party has insurance (i am in the industry i know).

Throughout history there have always been knock offs and that is the way of nature, survival of the fitest.

I.e.
original - knock off
Coke - Pepsi
at&t - t-mobile
mercedes - lexus (yes and you know it)
red bull - any other energy drink
real body kits - VIS RACING
oem - LKQ (definite knock off)
iphone - every new phone

Monopoly's often lead to limited choices, high prices, and THEN low quality i.e. WALMART (not a monopoly yet but they are getting there)

by all means i do not condone it but does it really matter, if they didnt rip them off, someone else like VIS, and the rest of the industry will, most likely it would definitely be of worse quality then my shine kit. Copying just makes it more competitive for aftermarkets ultimately leading to more choices and better products for the consumers which is YOU guys in the end.

 

What happens when you have the option to go either way, the money is there, but, when you try to order a japanese product, the seller says, "6-12 week wait, cash up front and then we'll figure out the shipping later?" What the hell is up with that? This day in age, there has to be a better, more efficient way to make these products more readily available. There's no reason not too. If yo can order custom built cars from factories overseas in a reasonable time, how long can it take to pop out some fiberglass out of a mold and ship it over? Id rather enjoy my time now than wait til later when my interest runs out because Im so tired of waiting that I forget what Im waiting for in the first place. my .02

 

it is weird we did one and we didn't have any problems of sticking out. there is like 3-4 jp ucf10 kit in hawaii and i am pretty sure non of us got problems.

 

a lot of kits are built to order and due to the niche market no one over here really stocks them. i'm sure you could pay a lot more for air shipping and cut down the lead time significantly.

one thing is for sure; buying a knockoff isn't going to help the situation. if enough people were willing to spend the money and wait the lead time then things could possibly change in the future. every replica sold is money out of the originators pocket, money out of the importers pocket, and 1 less tally mark for the salability of authentic imported goods.

 

+1, jdm kits are usually never stocked in a warehouse in japan either, but are built to order. hence the lead time required to build the kits and ship them out. it took 6-8 weeks before i got my prussian blue kit (slow boat from japan does cut down on the shipping costs tho compared to air shipping which is extremely expensive).

 

This got me thinking. I bet all the companies that the knock off companies are copying don't even consider American car enthusiasts as a consumer target. If they cared to sell to Americans, they would make more effort to make it easier to ship their products to America.

My theory is that 50% of the people who buy the knockoffs buy it purely based on availability (I-WANT-IT-NOW syndrome), and if it wasn't available right away, they wouldn't buy it at all, knockoff or not.

Basically, looking on the brightside, 50% of the people who buy knockoffs wouldn't buy the real thing just because of how hard it is to get. So the Japanese companies aren't losing, say, 100% of the money that knockoff companies make.

You can't lose a sale if you never had it in the first place.

 

You're putting money in the knockoff companies pocket. Other knockoff companies will be created knowing that they can make a quick buck and knockoff companies compete with each other and lower their prices (and usually quality).

Now these knockoff kits are going for $400 where the real deal is going for $3k. People who were willing to pay the $3k are now looking elseware due to the amount of people rocking the knockoff.

See how the company gets hurt? This is bigger then you

 

You said it man! I really wanted a Full Big Win for my car, even contemplated a Vertex kit because their office is close by, but everyone has a knock off vertex, and when I called to get a Big Win; the sellers seemed like they could have cared less btw, they said we have to order it, might take 12 weeks, didnt even have a real price for me and didnt know how much shipping was, which was getting passed along to me, meaning they want me to pay for the shipping from Japan! WTF is that? Whos getting these kits for 1600 shipped? As for me, Im getting the Shine kit, say what you want, the guys at Shine have outstanding customer service, get right to the point, they will even refund you your money back if your not satisfied. Not to mention they improved on the design so it fits even better. Good luck getting any help from overseas if your kit gets F'd up! I should be getting a paycheck from these guys! lol.