Tesla’s cat mattress could also be a copycat, as Taiwanese mom-and-pop pet provide store accuses the automaker of stealing its design
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Tesla is within the information for almost the final cause you’d count on. The electrical carmaker, which sometimes releases offbeat, non-automotive merchandise to advertise its EVs, has run afoul of a Taiwanese firm that believes the American automaker stole its design for a cat mattress.
Earlier this month, Tesla began providing two new merchandise to Chinese language prospects on its web site. Amongst them, an angular cat mattress fabricated from cardboard that was meant to advertise the Cybertruck, an angular pickup fabricated from stainless-steel.
Nevertheless, Jeff Younger, a Taiwanese YouTuber, identified on his channel just lately that Tesla’s new product bears a hanging resemblance to 1 created by Hulumao, a cat furnishings producer primarily based in the identical nation.
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Though Hulumao’s product is marketed as a “lounge chair” for cats, Younger described the 2 merchandise as “roughly 95 p.c an identical” other than the Tesla branding. Satirically, the opposite product Tesla began promoting was a branding iron.
Whereas there seem like some very minor variations, the 2 merchandise are so related that it could be onerous to differentiate between them had been it not for the names on the entrance. Extra alarming nonetheless, Hulumao’s product was launched in 2017, and even gained design awards.
Whereas the copycat design isn’t sitting nicely with some individuals on moral grounds, Tesla ought to be okay legally. Focus Taiwan reviews that Hulumao by no means took out a patent on the design as a result of legal professionals suggested it that it’s onerous for small corporations to safe mental property rights for DIY-style merchandise like this folding cat lounger.
To register its dissatisfaction with the massive American firm, Hulumao wrote a considerably sarcastic open letter to its CEO, Elon Musk, on its Instagram web page. Written in English, the letter thanks the richest man on earth for “selling our product with Tesla brand on it.” It provides that it’s sure it has “by no means manufactured this mannequin for Tesla firm in China nor licensed the design to you,” and causes that there have to be a misunderstanding within the matter.
Hulumao’s founder, Hsiao Shih, in the end lamented that “I suppose there’s not likely a lot we will do.” Nevertheless, I’d recommend that there’s something Tesla can do, and that’s pay Hulumao a royalty payment.