A few online stores are selling Doubleshot PBT keycaps using Novelkeys Tooling

Agreed. I mean, they’re not even trying to hide their dubious shenanigans anymore. @biip you were so cool about it too. Huge respect buddy. I’d be so pissed.

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GMK dots, is kind of a unique example. Essentially every key is a novelty and I would be against it’s reproduction, by other manufactures, even it it was done in a different color way, because I feel that the colors are not relevant to the styling / novel nature of the keycaps.

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I don’t know that I agree with saying a dot is a novelty. that would be like saying the first person to make a polka dot pattern is the only person who can use them.

A dot in and of it’s self is not novel, but the arrangement and sizing of the dots on the keys, is the part that could be considered novel.

The greater debate is the question of weather changing the designee on a key cap, that has no patent or who’s patent has expired, could be considered novel. IE Does putting a dot (something which isn’t novel) on a keycap / keycap profile (that’s not novel) = a novel keycap.

I’m assuming, that it could be considered art, but that claim is harder to justify, then it would be if the dots had been a novel image created by the designer…

As to weather or not you could actually patent, trademark, or copy write it, is a matter in and of it’s self, that would be up to the designer and their lawyers to request / obtain.

I hear you. I’m just saying some things are too generic. Was it a novel idea to replace all legends with dots, sure. Can you do anything about it being copied? not buy it, but otherwise probably not.

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It really isin’t up to the consumer. It would be up to the developer, to file the paperwork, then go after the offending companies, that are reproducing the product.

As to whether or not it’s worth doing that, I’d say probably not, but that’s for the designer decide if it’s worth it to them.

I personally like the idea of protecting original works, but I’m also opposed to those protections stifling the abilities of other creators. Epically when their is a mathematical limit, to the number of possibilities, such as available materials and colors.

I’m not sure that it is unique enough to be granted protection. Copyright is cheap, though, at $35 so would be interesting to see what they think.

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Enforcement and proving that there is a violation, is the expensive part.

Also, price can very dramatically depending on weather you need a Trademark, Patent, or Copyright?

I looked into patenting a designee I had a while back, and decided it wasn’t worth it. I also had a pretty long conversation with a guy, that I met at my local firing range back in 2010, that had pending patents on some AR-15 and AR-10 buffer tube parts designed to prevent carrier tilt in gas piston blowback models. IIRC, he was $32,000 and 2 years into it, and still only had patent pending. Per part, it was about $5000 for the initial filing and $2000 per revision, IIRC.

I was talking specifically about copyright. I don’t think there is anything patentable with a keyset design. I guess you could trademark the name Dots but again that might be too generic. Anyways, I don’t endorse ripping off designs but I do like discussing what should and shouldn’t be protected. I think it’s healthy to have these open dialogs about such a heated topic. I have a lot of respect for biip and really enjoy many of their designs.

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Ditto, it’s nice when reasonable discourse can be had about such topics, especially when they revolve around language, and how we interpret that language.

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Legal and moral issues aside, it’s interesting that Cancel Culture seem powerless against near-anonymous manufacturers like this one.

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Well, I am a kinda, not gonna lie. But Reddit is not a safe place to be pissed off.

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Could you elaborate?

There is defiantly a blind mob mentality on Reddit and it’s gotten worse, as younger generations have started to take over.

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Amazon is filled with products that look exactly same but with different unrecognizable brands. While similar, this is not how OEMs do business. Instead, this looks more like middlemen in China repackaging and listing on Amazon.

I think we’re starting to see similar thing happening MK market: middlemen selling MK products through burner brands with which they can afford to ignore social backlash, aka Cancel Culture.

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Ah, ya, I learned, not to invest too much into specific brands, back when I had re place the igniter in my dryer, only to realize, that that same dryer (Kenmore IIRC) was sold under about 20 different brands.

If we continue to have products that every one wants and the people that making them aren’t willing to or are not capable of make the supply at the price that people are willing to pay, were probably going to see this a lot more in in the future.

Edit: The two reason I can think of to put stock into one brand vs another.
R1: If you believe that brand will be around longer and be capable of supporting their products, but that looses merit, when the product, doesn’t require long term support.
R2: If you think that brand A makes a better product, then brand B, but that’s only valid if brand A’s and brand B’s products aren’t being made by brand C.

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I feel like if you just focus on quality you’ll be ok. everyone can tell it’s a dots knock off and that it doesn’t look anywhere near as good as the set biip produced. People who want the real deal will find it and those who are ok with the cheap looking knock offs were never going to purchase the real product anyway.

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The fake Dots is made by Aifei.
And yes, it is reverse dyesub, so it cannot be as good as the doubleshot version.

He makes many other sets, they are usually not as good as the originals, but since they are usually less than 25 bucks I don’t blame them.

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