Carl zeiss

[ttexastom]

Looking on ebay today, my interest came up when, i saw zeiss scopes on sale for ridiculosly low prices. After looking at a couple, saw where they mightbe copies. My question is how can someone put a well known name for quality, and not get into copyright infringement? Or maybe get sued

[The Old Coach]

Chinese counterfeits? Wouldn't be the first time. Not even the one-thousandth.

I'm a retired Zeissketeer, so I can say with some authority that Zeiss sources product from everywhere. In 2009 when I left, I don't think Zeiss made any of their consumer-grade optics themselves. My division had had a factory in China for some years already, assembling industrial measuring machines. I always opposed this, but had no say in the matter. From my machine tool career in the '70s and '80s, I knew full well that, once the Chinese get their hands on a technology, they pirate it without mercy. Ethics is a concept that is utterly unknown in China. If the Stiftung decided to have scopes made there, the appearance of counterfeits was only a matter of time, and not much of that.

Both evilBay and Amazon are guilty of enabling this kind of counterfeiting. I've been caught out with a batch of microSD cards that were advertised as a name brand, and the listing said "fulfilled by Amazon", shipped from a USA warehouse. NOT. Shipped from Hong Kong, took weeks to arrive, 3 out of ten were DOA, 3 or 4 more failed within a few read/write cycles. I'd love to see the new Trump administration clamp down on this rampant fraud.

[lone gunman]

i have reported fake leupolds on eBay more than once to leupold and always get a thank you back from them. they take fraud pretty seriously and it usually gets the item pulled or the wording changed to leupold clone at least. i don't know if it really helps but i have seen fake ones get bid up pretty good and i would hate to think someone will get ripped off. if you look on leupolds web site they have a how to spot fake product page somewhere.

[toddcdozer]

Tons of fake optics on Ebay. If it sounds too good to be true.................yeah.

[J.Baker]

Just go to the SHOT Show sometime and sit around a major optics or tactical booth for a few minutes. Before you know it you'll see a group of 5 or 6 Asians come in working as a team. One or two will distract the Sales Rep's while the others start grabbing new products off the shelf and taking detailed photo's and getting measurements with calipers and mics. A couple months later you see a Chinese clone of the same product hit the market for 1/3 the price of the original.

This is HUGE business for the Chinese in the AirSoft community.

[WV1951]

^^^^ Absolutely true. I remember the National Hardware Show back in the 70's in Chicago' McCormick Place(huge place). I was in lawn and garden tools and most items were still USA made. The Asian guests would make no bones about looking at and taking pictures of our product and others' products. I mean by the dozens. Late 70's, early 80's started to see an onslaught of knockoffs as well or something close. It started the demise of this industry and to this day, there is little, if any, of these lines being USA made.

[WeldNFool]

Funny I ran across this thread. I was just looking at sleezebay yesterday and was looking at the Zeiss scopes and saw one for $271 and said, what???? Then I noticed the wording, clone, copy, fake, turd.....whatever but definitely not a true Carl Zeiss. It's a darn shame they get away with this stuff.

I watched an older show of Top Gear a while back and they went to China and were looking at new cars. It was hilarious because they had several lined up and the guys stood there looking at them pointing out how they looked exactly like a Ford, British or French car but the name was ChinWan 500 DMX WaiChu or something. Just complete knockoff's more or less rebadged.

When China was showing off their new battleships and aircraft carriers I could only laugh at the similarities with our current line up. Then another laugh as I realized that they looked like awesome battleships and aircraft carriers but were still filled with the same crappy electronics they send to us over here to buy that lasts for a few months then quits working. Then I had a deep thought, lasted for a minute and I wondered, are they really that unimaginative??? Or is it just cheaper to copy somebody else's work??

All I can say is hopefully our new POTUS will have an effect and buying American made goods to support American families will not be as difficult as it has been in the past.

[yobuck]

Actually, there are also some pretty good optics coming out of China.

[Robinhood]

Just go to the SHOT Show sometime and sit around a major optics or tactical booth for a few minutes. Before you know it you'll see a group of 5 or 6 Asians come in working as a team. One or two will distract the Sales Rep's while the others start grabbing new products off the shelf and taking detailed photo's and getting measurements with calipers and mics. A couple months later you see a Chinese clone of the same product hit the market for 1/3 the price of the original.

This is HUGE business for the Chinese in the AirSoft community.

I have seen this first hand. I am surprised that the show handlers allows it.

[WeldNFool]

Yobuck, my cheap temporary scope is a barska, $99, pretty sure it's from China. For $99 it's not horribly bad. Nothing like looking thru my Leupold at the same distance. There is a definite difference in optical lens quality, $99 versus $1000 plus though. When you adjust it for zero there is some doubt in my mind that it's actually adjusting the 1/8MOA that it states. But, for plinking targets while I build up my eyewear fund for something 5-6 times as much plus or minus it will have to do. Wish there were some American made optics that could compete, at least my buck would be used here but then again you're not going to get away with paying a worker $10 a day in the States.

[The Old Coach]

^^^^ Absolutely true. I remember the National Hardware Show back in the 70's in Chicago' McCormick Place(huge place). I was in lawn and garden tools and most items were still USA made. The Asian guests would make no bones about looking at and taking pictures of our product and others' products. I mean by the dozens. Late 70's, early 80's started to see an onslaught of knockoffs as well or something close. It started the demise of this industry and to this day, there is little, if any, of these lines being USA made.

I've got a similar Chicago story, 1970s, IMTS Machine Tool Show. I think it was in the Kearney & Trecker booth. They were running a live demo when WHAM! the machine shut down dead. Turned out that some Japanese spies had snuck behind the curtains and pulled the main disconnect so they could open the panel for pictures. I was working for another company; I didn't see it, but the story flashed through the entire hall in minutes.