Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...and cause for ire
Thermaltake managed to ruffle a few feathers with the release of new cases at Computex. One of them is the Suppressor F51, a case that looks almost identical Fractal Design's R5, though it's the company's new premium line of W Series cases that have caused a shit storm.
After catching wind of Thermaltake's new cases, Kevin Keating, vice president of CaseLabs, outright accused the company of copying its competitors' designs in a seething Facebook post. Keating took it a step further and said Thermaltake has a history of ripping off its competitors, and that's where things get really interesting.
Keating recounts how in July 2013, CaseLabs exhibited two of its Merlin SM8 cases at PDXLAN 22. At the time, CaseLabs didn't have a booth, but the response to its cases was so overwhelmingly positive, the company was asked to return a year later for PDXLAN 23 as an official sponsor.
CaseLabs pounced on the opportunity and got a booth, bringing along with it a bunch of cases, including its Mercury case line (S3, S5, and S8).
"It was at this time we found out Thermaltake was a major sponsor of this event (and have been) and their case designer, Shannon, was in attendance (as he usually is). Shannon was introduced to my dad (CL owner) and I via a mutual friend," Keating explains. "Shannon then proceeded to tell us how much he liked our cases, and he was a big fan. He seemed very genuine, and overall a nice person. He started asking us about our cases and said, 'Wow I wish our company made cases like this, can I take some pictures to send to our R&D department'? A bit flabbergasted I told him no which he then replied, 'Well I guess we will just buy one then'."
Keating has invoices showing that Thermaltake had purchased its Merlin SM8 case back in September of 2013, two months after it was showed off for the first time. At this point, it should be noted that it's not unusual for product designers to purchase wares from their competitors. But where things go wrong, at least according to Keating, is when Thermaltake starts blatantly copying its designs.
"For those who know me, you know I am not a person to create drama. Nor am I a person to be dishonest, or try to slander someone out of spite. With that being said I can no longer hold my tongue about Shannon Robb 'Case Designer' at Thermaltake," Keating says. "For those of you at Computex you may know what I’m talking about… Thermaltake has just announced their 'new' case line last night, the 'new TT premium line W series extreme chassis'. It is more than evident this is a stolen concept. Not only did Shannon clone our Mercury line, with his Core line, but now they have stolen our MAGNUM and Merlin designs as well."
Keating posted the above photo to his Facebook rant to demonstrate the similarities between CaseLabs' Merlin SM8 and Thermaltake's TH10.
The supposed scandal has prompted several technology sites to post comparison photos of Thermaltake's products to ones they appear to have copied. For example, have a look at this:
The case on the left is Fractal Design's Define R5 and the case on the right is Thermaltake's newly unveiled Suppressor F51. To be fair, both look a little similar to Antec's Performance One series, and as some have noted, emulation is pretty common in the case industry. However, some feel that Thermaltake crosses the line with several products that look almost identical to its competitors, including everything from fans and cases, to fan controllers and waterblocks.
Here's another example:
On the left is an image on FrozenCPU's website of Apogee's XL CPU water, and the right is Thermaltake's photo of its W2 CPU waterblock.
So, what does Thermaltake have to say about this? We can't find the post, but according to Legit Reviews, Shannon Rob issued the following statement on Facebook:
Hi Guys, sorry I didnt respond to this sooner but in TW it is just now like 7AM…
First off anyone who has seen these cases, they are in no way as far as fitment and functionalitya copy of anything. The scalability and modularity are simply awesome.
as far as exterior appearance, we chose a design that ideally fit everything we wanted to accomplish with the design and similar with the panel grille designs. Its only partially about appearance and more about what will provide best airflow without sacrificing panel integrity and rigidity.
Lastly, do remember that as a chassis manufacturer we all make cases and if you remember we all used to have beige boxes, its not about copying anything its about what makes the best fit for the design you are trying to accomplish.
We are pushing the limits on many things as far as performance and feature sets and im glad you think our chassis is so awesome, because if you really like it that much you will like the price even better!
stay tuned to see more cool stuff from computex.
So what do you think -- is Thermaltake blatantly ripping off designs from its competitors, or is this much ado about nothing?
From maximumpc
from http://bit.ly/1FyG6yg
