PFO Done ? And All LED Aquarium Co.
- Thread starter Boomer
- Start date
lcstorc
Well-Known Member
Looks exactly like mine. Guess it is a form letter and everybody is saying the same things I did.
Grr
I should try asking more questions and see if I get another canned response.
This whole thing smells badly (and no I haven't spilled SKIMMATE today).
I think this whole issue will actually HURT the hobby as a whole. I think (and I don't have anything to back it up with) that something "Sneaky" has gone on and PFO is getting taken advantage of. Hopefully by the time it's all "Aired Out" PFO will be be a viable company and come out on top.
I've literally spent hours pouring over this and it SUCKS!! Hopefully PFO has all of their "I's" dotted and "T's" crossed. It would be a shame for them to not survive this "attack".
I think this whole issue will actually HURT the hobby as a whole. I think (and I don't have anything to back it up with) that something "Sneaky" has gone on and PFO is getting taken advantage of. Hopefully by the time it's all "Aired Out" PFO will be be a viable company and come out on top.
I've literally spent hours pouring over this and it SUCKS!! Hopefully PFO has all of their "I's" dotted and "T's" crossed. It would be a shame for them to not survive this "attack".
rmlevasseur
Active Member
I have no more loyalty to PFO then I do Nissan or Frigidaire (my car and refrigerator). In fact I have less because of all the difficulties I have had. I will support any company that puts out a better LED unit. I feel sorry for the people that lost their jobs at PFO, but I'm not ready to blame a patent holder quite yet. I'm anxious to see how this plays out.
As a hobbyist, I'm very excited to see how another company does something. The sad part is, I think lots of people were ready to jump to LED. Orbitech probably would have been better off by just releasing a better product. With no other competitor, LED will still face the same scrutiny instead of becoming mainstream. If they had released a superior product (or even a similar product!), I think they would have outsold Solaris 10-1 due to all the problems the Solaris has had. Now people will be just as skeptical of their product.
As a hobbyist, I'm very excited to see how another company does something. The sad part is, I think lots of people were ready to jump to LED. Orbitech probably would have been better off by just releasing a better product. With no other competitor, LED will still face the same scrutiny instead of becoming mainstream. If they had released a superior product (or even a similar product!), I think they would have outsold Solaris 10-1 due to all the problems the Solaris has had. Now people will be just as skeptical of their product.
Unfortunately, IMO, this is one of the biggest problems with todays consumers, they have no dedication. It's more of a generational issue though. Without the dedication of the traditional generation's dedication, Frigidaire and other long term American companies would not be in business today.
Solaris was a fledgling company, not without its problems. However, they were responsive to their customers and were making strides to better their product until they were shot down by corporate greed! Which, by the way, seems to be the way of this country anymore!
Solaris was a fledgling company, not without its problems. However, they were responsive to their customers and were making strides to better their product until they were shot down by corporate greed! Which, by the way, seems to be the way of this country anymore!
yungreefer2410
Well-Known Member
i agree i think they should of just came out with their own product, not sue solaris. i try to buy american made things and speaking about this i think if they bring back the furniture manufacturing to america it will help alot with the recession. you should see my grandmas town. too many empty factories 
rmlevasseur
Active Member
Well we have to agree to disagree then Dent. At 42 I don't think my feelings are generational. Nissan and Frigidaire are around because they consistantly released good products.
Do you think America's car companies are failing because of lack of loyalty? No way man. They failed to innovate, failed to retool, failed to remain efficient. A good product will always have support, and its up to the company to produce them.
What angers me about "today's world" isn't the lack of corporate loyalty, but rather when we pretend we aren't a capitalist society. Bad stuff is supposed to fail. It isn't supposed to be propped up with bailouts or tax exemptions. Corporations are treated like people under the law, and like people they shouldn't last forever.
This is a product, and as a consumer I expect it to be reliable and fit for its particular purpose. If it is, they will have my loyalty. This is my primary need as a consumer. If all else is equal, I'll buy American. And given equal American products, I'll buy local. And if a company consistently rewards me with superior products, then they will have my loyalty as well. It is earned.
Do you think America's car companies are failing because of lack of loyalty? No way man. They failed to innovate, failed to retool, failed to remain efficient. A good product will always have support, and its up to the company to produce them.
What angers me about "today's world" isn't the lack of corporate loyalty, but rather when we pretend we aren't a capitalist society. Bad stuff is supposed to fail. It isn't supposed to be propped up with bailouts or tax exemptions. Corporations are treated like people under the law, and like people they shouldn't last forever.
This is a product, and as a consumer I expect it to be reliable and fit for its particular purpose. If it is, they will have my loyalty. This is my primary need as a consumer. If all else is equal, I'll buy American. And given equal American products, I'll buy local. And if a company consistently rewards me with superior products, then they will have my loyalty as well. It is earned.
Yes, in an ideal world that would be the case. However, the business world works a lot differently, especially in a high tech industry.
If a company gets an idea about a product, they will try to patent it. If the patent is issued, they get a monopoly on the product until the patent runs out, or the court system finds that the patent was invalid and should not have been issued. In exchange, the idea gets disclosed to the world, and anyone can use it after the patent expires.
A modern company has a duty to it's owners or stockholders to protect it's ideas. This is why you se a lot of patents issued, even though no product may ever be created. This is why you see lawsuits such as the one against PFO. Orbitech has a duty to protect it's patents.
It is not unusual for a large company to buy up patents issued to other small companies just to prevent competition from the small companies.
It is also not unusual for a big company to knowingly violate patents held by smaller companies, knowing that by the time the issues work their way through the court system, the little company will be bankrupt and out of business.
This is all very ruthless but it's how things work today.
Yes, I would have wished that the two companies could have worked something out, but that often doesn't happen.
yungreefer2410
Well-Known Member
is it not illegal to have a monopoly no patent or not?
lcstorc
Well-Known Member
It's not really considered a monopoly Cole. That would be for an entire industry. For a monopoly people cannot get something without going through you. It is also very hard to convince the Feds that a company is a monopoly. The company I worked for was investigated by the Justice Dept 3 times to see if they were a monopoly and they got away with it each time. In all honesty they are a monopoly.
The thing I don't understand though is I believe PFO has said patent pending just like most everything. How is their light patent pending if this company already has a patent? IDK I guess it is all too much for me to understand.
The thing I don't understand though is I believe PFO has said patent pending just like most everything. How is their light patent pending if this company already has a patent? IDK I guess it is all too much for me to understand.
Tru2nr
Well-Known Member
not to take one side or the other but as an FYI 150million dollars worth of government contracts sounds like alot but it really is not. I do work for a company that sells to the military side and let me tell you alot of that money the companies do not see at all. and yes 150million for a company that is doing work for the government especcially in aerospace is can still be easily considered a small business especially when you look at the fact that they are not puting 150million dollars into their back pocket. just my 2 cents it is a shame though about PFO and until there is some legit competition with LED aquarium lighting then they will not be mainstream nor will they come down in price...why because 1)technology in led lighting is not cheap 2)they have no reason to.
Patent pending means that you have filed the paperwork but that a patent has yet to be issued. This lets the company start making the product without having a formal patent, yet still protect their patent rights.
You never know how the patent office will go. They could decide that the PFO patent is similar to the Oribtech patent and not grant the PFO patent. They could also decide that the patents are different and grant the PFO patent.
After that both parties will duke it out in the courts.
This is not unique or something new. Quite a few other inventions had been worked on by independent inventors with both making a breakthrough about the same time. The sewing machine comes to mind, as does motion pictures.
Techno-Vicki
Well-Known Member
It is too bad that it ends up who has the best lawyers and money to pay them that wins. I will continue to support PFO and hope that they can survive unethical behavior.