Copying

[Cob]

A very good discussion and topic. Deb, you spoiled us yet again.

Here's a fun one:



The above is, a "NAVY Pen" made by Ohmi Yoko pen company in Japan.
Below it, the "inspiration".

Homage? Borrowing? Duplicate? Inspired-by? Really-Inspired by?

So don't just pin in on the Chinese manufacturers, their counterparts in Japan are doing the same thing also.

This reminds me - and sadly I do not have photographs to back these up:

First there are or I should say, have been Japanese pens called Swans with practically an exact copy of the Swan logo
Second, there are the Japanese Onoto copies.

These are both - as far as I recall - old productions - most likely dating from the time that Japan was renowned - as China is today, so it seems - for copying things.

A friend of mine is married to a Malaysian girl. Inevitably he has been over there to visit family etc. One time he returned with a very fancy and enormous mechanical wrist watch that cost very little. It said "Omega" on the face!

Cob

[Deb]

That's the third of those Skyline copies I've seen now. Thank you!

[Deb]

I'm aware of both those copies. It may be that there was some actual link between Mabie Todd and Japanese Swans, at least to begin with.

Many Japanese eyedropper fillers use a version of the Onoto shut-off valve.

[Woody]

Great initial post - and very very true. I recall the Sonnet was 'copied' but sort of, not really if you get my meaning. I just get burned when I get a slew of bad Sonnet nibs (which I did - twice) - should have known better. It didn't turn me off the original Sonnet nib.

[JFB]

Copied designs, not straight out counterfeiting, are fine if the patents protecting those designs have lapsed. Now, when anything is reversed engineered and aspects are changed to get around patents it's a matter for the experts to decide how much change is enough change. In the early days of the Phonograph industry there was a free-for-all of patent thievery before things settled down.

Fountain pens are such simple instruments I'd imagine it's fairly difficult to come up with something that hasn't been done before. That being said I'm not excusing patent infringement. Had I been less impetuous in my desire to dive head first (figuratively-otherwise that could hurt! ) in fountain pens again I think I'd have been less likely to buy some of the pens I did.

Pax,
John

[catbert]

Interesting thread. It brings to mind a recent Brainpickings article on imitation and creativity. Quoting Oliver Sacks at the end:

"What is at issue is not the fact of “borrowing” or “imitating,” of being “derivative,” being “influenced,” but what one does with what is borrowed or imitated or derived; how deeply one assimilates it, takes it into oneself, compounds it with one’s own experiences and thoughts and feelings, places it in relation to oneself, and expresses it in a new way, one’s own."

The whole piece is here.

Japanese manufacturers, and Italians before them, went through imitative phases before finding their own style and originality, if they survived long enough. Sheaffer sued Pen-Co over the model 53. Pen-Co eventually went under. (Incidentally, was Omas ever called out by Parker - or vice versa - over the arrow design on nibs and clips?)

It would be nice to think that the imitative manufacturers of today will become the original creators, even innovators, of tomorrow - just as (paraphrasing Freud) the dwarf on the shoulders of the giant sees further than the giant, though the louse on the head of the astronomer does not.

[Deb]

The arrow design is especially associated with Parker but many other manufacturers have used it too. Parker may have a claim to a particular design of arrow clip but that's as far as it gos. It's an obvious metaphor, aligning the feather of the quill pen with feathers of the arrow. In very general terms, there's a resemblance between an arrow and a pen, both having a pointy business end.

I think Parker has recognised from the outset that the arrow was widely used and decided not to waste money and time pursuing what what would be an unwinnable case against others which used the same trope. Admittedly, some, like Omas and Hero, have come very close to Parker's design.