I Was Just Cruising Uluru Blog and found more Moore Bettah copies....WOW

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mm stan

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I know this might get Chuckie More PO'ed but...wonder how many more are out there and or if they will continue this....
http://uluruuke.pixnet.net/blog/post/63112949 I cannot read chinese, and hope someone will translate this for me....thank you
 
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What infringement are you referring to, Stan? I just see a uke inlaid with abalone. I'm not familiar with all of Chuck's ukes; did he build one just like this, same inlays, same design?
 
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Stan I thought this was all done and taken cared of ...I matched the pictures with the MB website and they look like copies again...what a joke...

I thought the Dragon and Frog were the only ones they did...that is what they said right?

are they connected with Ayers Guitar also?

I guess their apology was just lies....wow
 
Thanks Seeso

this is way bigger than I thought at first...
do they have all the Moore Bettah designs..they are exact copies...Ayer Guitar USA said there were only two copies and they were the only ones they did?
now 2 more...wow
 
That looks, as lawyers like to say, "substantially identical." In other words, it's unlikely that the Uluru design was made without the designer having seen and tried to copy Chuck's design (unless both Chuck and Uluru drew their inspirations from the same source art, which is unlikely). I don't like to jumpt to conclusions, but it may be fair to say that the Uluru US representative who apologized to Chuck wasn't being completely honest about the extent to which Uluru set out on a deliberate mission to copy Chuck's art.

Moore Bettah ukulele:
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Uluru ukulele:
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Wow, that's just horrible!
 
Oy. That's really bad. The outlines of the inlays are essentially the same. The Moore Bettahs look more detailed, the Ulurus look like they traced the edges and didn't quite fill them in the same way.

***note to self, if I ever get on Chuck's list, I'm getting a uke with a flowery rosette***
 
That looks, as lawyers like to say, "substantially identical." In other words, it's unlikely that the Uluru design was made without the designer having seen and tried to copy Chuck's design (unless both Chuck and Uluru drew their inspirations from the same source art, which is unlikely). I don't like to jumpt to conclusions, but it may be fair to say that the Uluru US representative who apologized to Chuck wasn't being completely honest about the extent to which Uluru set out on a deliberate mission to copy Chuck's art.



Mark..
how do you stop this kind of stuff...I am talking respect here...or self respect(I guess Ulura/Ayers)have none...
you know the law..this is a joke IMO

I am pissed for Chuck and for the owners who have these one off MB designs..
 
Aloha Markie,

Side by Side comparisons really do look like substantially Identical :)
No Chinese Members yet to translate for us please...:)

This is done by Chrome... So it's probably not completely accurate... But here is:

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Sigh. I mean, come ON, they are clearly direct rip-offs. This is not just copying the shape or style of an ukulele manufacturer, like making "their version" of a Martin or whatever. Copy the ART that someone creates and pass it off as your own? Shame on you!
 
Mark..
how do you stop this kind of stuff...I am talking respect here...or self respect(I guess Ulura/Ayers)have none...
you know the law..this is a joke IMO

I am pissed for Chuck and for the owners who have these one off MB designs..

There was a lot of talk about the legal stuff in Chuck's earlier thread about these copycat ukuleles. Ordinarily, under federal copyright and trademark law, a business (say, Disney) would send someone using its proprietary art a "cease and desist" letter and, if the person using the protected art didn't cease and desist, a lawsuit would be filed. Things are more complicated when the person who is wrongfully using the protected art is overseas. I don't know much about this, but overseas violations typically involve treaties. I have an attorney friend who used to work for a movie industry trade association that went after Chinese companies that were pirating American movies and selling illegal DVDs of them. I don't know what, if any, treaties are in place to protect the holders of American copyrights and trademarks, but trying to enforce those rights in China is very difficult.

I say this not as an attorney but as a consumer: I think the best weapon against a foreign company that is pirating proprietary artwork and has a presence in the US is to pressure/boycott its US affiliate, In other words, emails or other correspondence to Ayers America promising to boycott any products it sells in America might pressure the US affiliate to ask the offending foreign company to stop. It might not hurt to also tell the guy who emailed Chuck to apologize that Ayers Music is, in so many words, a lying piece of crap for having suggested that the copying was isolated when it is clearly more widespread than he suggested. Sadly, some people have to be shamed into behaving better. And just as sadly, people never seem to learn the lessons of the Watergate scandal, which is that the coverup often bothers people more than the original offense.
 
That's pretty crazy! It's not like its just the same shape bamboo and bird, the flowers and leaves on them look identical. I don't really see how the builder is proud of his ukulele if its a straight up copy to MB ukuleles. I could see if I was a builder wanting to copy certain ukuleles but I would never do it without asking the original builder. Hope he can get it resolved and hope this doesn't keep happening to Moore bettah's ukuleles or any other builder.
 
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