Punkinhead
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2010
- Location
- IN, USA
Let's say someone is selling you a piece of equipment. It's an elegant, simple design that works very well. It uses mostly off the shelf components with a couple key custom parts. The only problem is the price is ridiculously high. You're in the machine design business and can see that it could be built and sold profitably at 1/4 the price. You've tried negotiating with the manufacturer but this thing is a sideline for them and they don't care much whether they build them or not, hence they price it high enough to make it worthwhile to take resources away from their core business. You only use this piece of equipment internally - you will not be selling them outside of your own company. There is nothing patentable about the design. There are other manufacturers that have taken a similar approach, it's just that this company did a really nice job in choosing components and in overall packaging.
Is reverse engineering and making it yourself for use in your own plants legal and/or ethical?
Is reverse engineering and making it yourself for use in your own plants legal and/or ethical?