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OXO, Crooks and Robbers?
- mikegirouard 14y agoI don't care about the rivalry between two companies producing similar products... but this line really hit me hard: > Ideas are limitless and patents expire for a reason: to encourage competition, innovation, and the evolution of new ideas that ultimately benefit the end user. If patents never expired, we would have only one car company, and the cars they develop would likely not be readily available and affordable to so many people all over the world. Imagine that. Good show.
- misleading_name 14y agoI love that fact that the other company was actually recycling an idea from 1919 and thinking they were onto something new.
- MartinCron 14y agoThis makes me adore OXO even more than I did before. Very human response.
- philwelch 14y agoOXO is one of my favorite companies. They seem to have the same quirky creative culture as much of the tech industry, except maybe even friendlier, plus a great design philosophy. http://www.oxo.com/AboutOXO.aspx http://www.oxo.com/AboutOXO.aspx http://www.oxo.com/UniversalDesign.aspx http://www.oxo.com/UniversalDesign.aspx
- zem 14y agoplus some truly good products.
- rm445 14y agoI was just really confused. Is it or isn't it the same OXO who have been producing stock cubes since the 19th century (and built the highly-visible OXO tower in London)? On searching, it appears not to be, and the US OXO brand was 'invented' in 1990.
- philwelch 14y agoHah, yeah, no relation to the famous OXO cubes.
- adamkiss 14y ago> They seem to have the same quirky creative culture I see what you did there. +1
- MartinCron 14y agoDigging deeper into the "protest" linked from the OXO site: http://www.quirky.com/blog/post/2013/01/rise-up-quirky-seeks-justice-for-bill-ward/ http://www.quirky.com/blog/post/2013/01/rise-up-quirky-seeks... And the whole thing feels cheap and desperate. I like the idea of being scrappy and unorthodox, but one corporate entity protesting another? It just smells terrible.
- jessaustin 14y agoYeah this is really lame. Shouldn't they be busy with more "innovative" products? Couldn't they have just hired some non-union union protesters for this?
- ballard 14y agoHave to go to Canada for that.
- bcoates 14y agoIn 'Che' shirts, even. Satire is dead.
- dasil003 14y agoWhat feels even cheaper are the public protesters (assuming they are in fact real unpaid people). It's bad enough when people go all frothy over iOS vs Android, but over household product brands? I mean time to re-evaluate your priorities people.
- danielamitay 14y agoAside from the "Some important lessons" section (which seemed very patronizing, although OXO seems to be in the right here considering the expired patent aspect), it seems that OXO handled themselves pretty well. It pointed out Quirky's side of things, and then presented their own side. With quite a bit of citation where appropriate. Quirky[1] went straight for the "justice" aspect in their post without presenting much info or even a cursory discussion of related patents. [1] http://www.quirky.com/blog/post/2013/01/rise-up-quirky-seeks-justice-for-bill-ward/ http://www.quirky.com/blog/post/2013/01/rise-up-quirky-seeks...
- mosselman 14y agoI actually loved that part. Even better was showing the many obvious quirky rip-offs from OXO products. Very gentleman like response and correction, well done OXO.
- wangarific 14y agoBoth companies end up winning here, for different reasons. OXO is the voice of reason that calmly explains what's what while Quirky looks like the protector who goes to bat for their inventors and community.
- PommeDeTerre 14y agoTo a lot of us, it looks like yet more pointless time- and effort-wasting squabble from the "design" crowd.
- callum85 14y agoIt's a matter of reputation and business for both participants in the squabble, so it's not a waste of time for them. You might have wasted your time reading it and commenting on it (if you didn't find it interesting), but that's your fault. I found it fun to read, so it didn't waste my time. And you said '...the "design" crowd'. What are your quote marks for? Are you implying they're not actually designers, or are you mocking the idea of product design as a profession, or something else?
- fruchtose 14y agoI found the Broom Groomer on Quirky's site [1], and what do you know?--the product description says, Patent pending. Well, that must mean there's a patent application in the USPTO system! Sure enough, Quirky's patent application, dated September 7, 2011 (provisionally filed April 18), titled Waste receptacle [2]. Bill Ward is one of the inventors. I am not qualified to judge this patent against the one mentioned by OXO, so I invite others to compare the two. [1] http://www.quirky.com/products/36-Broom-Groomer-Broom-Cleaning-Dustpan http://www.quirky.com/products/36-Broom-Groomer-Broom-Cleani... [2] http://www.google.com/patents/US20120260453 http://www.google.com/patents/US20120260453
- benzofuran 14y agoPatent pending or not, there's clear evidence of prior art, and the patent will most likely be rejected. I can file a patent on about anything from the wheel on up, and for the period between filing and rejection, I can claim that the wheel is patent pending - it still doesn't give me much further protection.
- Gigablah 14y agoApparently, Bill Ward earned $15k for re-appropriating a design from 1919. http://www.quirky.com/products/36-Broom-Groomer-Broom-Cleaning-Dustpan/timeline http://www.quirky.com/products/36-Broom-Groomer-Broom-Cleani... http://www.google.com/patents/US1315310 http://www.google.com/patents/US1315310
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- tomerv 14y agoIt's impossible for us to know all the facts of this dispute, but from the outside it looks like a childish move on Quirky's part, and a mature response from OXO.
- jtchang 14y agoI freaking love OXO products. Why? When you browse the kitchen utensil aisle at target you have a choice: Do you go for the cheap ass $1 dishbrush or do you splurge and get the awesome OXO brush? Time and again I think OXO does a great job at delivering a quality product that puts up to all the crappy abuse I dish out. Most large corporations wouldn't even bother with an article like this. OXO is simply trying to stay true to their roots. I respect that.
- rogerbinns 14y ago> I freaking love OXO products. As do I until I made the mistake of buying their kitchen timer which has one redeeming feature (many hours of timing - most are limited to 90 minutes) and sucks in every other way possible: buttons that don't work well, bizarre modes (clock, timer, expired timer, repeat last time) and a hard to read display.
- adamtj 14y agoIt has a second redeeming feature: it has a numeric keypad for quickly entering times. Most digital timers don't, which makes them harder to use than mechanical ones that you twist. Most digital timers squander their potential, but oxo gets that one right. The modes make sense to me, so I see those as a plus. I agree with you though about the hard to read display and the hard to press buttons.
- rogerbinns 14y agoThe problem with the modes is that you can't tell which it is. And I really don't need another clock - devices are pointlessly littered with them. I'll grudgingly accept one providing it keeps itself synchronised via radio/WWVB.
- pukka_my 14y agoTry the Pampered Chef timer - yes, it's a multi-level marketing company (aka pyramid scheme), but they make some good basic tools. I have one that I've been using on a weekly basis for 3+ years on the original battery, dropped frequently and still works.
- jfarmer 14y agoGood marketing by everyone involved, honestly. Everyone wins!
- jrockway 14y agoI've been in the tech industry for too long. The first few times, I read "Quirky" as "Quirk.ly". That said, this sounds insane to me. Why would you spend money going to war with a competitor over such a trivial matter? ("OXO copied a patent that we also copied. Help, help, I'm being repressed.") Only to lose in the end? I don't get it. One other observation: excellent application of Betteridge's Law of Headlines.
- jcampbell1 14y ago> Why would you spend money going to war with a competitor over such a trivial matter? I think the Quirky people genuinely thought they were ripped off. They wanted to be seen as the small company of inventors being ripped of by a much larger company. Unfortunately, they lacked enough introspection to realize they have done worse, and now they look like hypocrites.
- jrockway 14y agoDo attack ads ever work, even if the facts are accurate? (All I can think of are Microsoft's attack ads against Google, or Apple's "Redmond, Start your Photocopiers" ad. Wouldn't that money be better-invested in improving the product?)
- fennecfoxen 14y agoWere you paying attention during the 2012 US Presidential elections? Do those count?
- jcampbell1 14y agoIn politics, attack ads work well because if it causes someone to stay home it is a win. In business, negativity can damage the entire segment enough that both sides lose. Imagine if Coke and Pepsi accuse each other of selling "poison for idiots", then people will quit drinking soda altogether. Politicians don't have to consider this dilemma.
- onemorepassword 14y agoSeems to be the both OXO and Quirky are acting in good faith here, and Quirky just went completely of the reservation instead of even considering they may be wrong. I can understand how this could happen, for instance if OXO's initially didn't take Quirky's case seriously enough to give it a decent response like they're doing now. The ball is in Quirky's court now. If they have any shred of decency they will at the very least admit that they completely overreacted and that the case is more complicated than they claimed. I don't expect that though. There is something horribly "off" about the lame way Quirky dressed up a PR stunt like genuine protest, the kind of people that do that are not the kind that are likely to admit mistakes.
- DanBC 14y agoThey've riled up the Quirksters though - how do they back down and keep the forums calm?
- eagsalazar2 14y agoQuirky got served. Must be shameful to work there this morning.
- rickdale 14y agoI had the pleasure of meeting the father son team that started OXO a few years back. Their story is very interesting, they started out redesigning the carrot peeler, and look where they are today. Side note: I ordered a bunch of stuff from quirky the first time I saw the site and almost all the the stuff I got is really complete crap.
- JohnBooty 14y agoWow. A direct response with just the right amount of "snark" that's backed up by generous citation. It's slightly juvenile, but you know what? Quirky swung first; they don't get to complain when somebody swings back. Kudos to Oxo.
- cedricd 14y agoIt's a shame that Quirky would take to the streets like that. It comes off as childish and combative rather than as scrappy and willing to go to bat for their inventors.
- mistercow 14y agoIt also comes off as a cheap publicity stunt (because that's what it is).
- kemiller 14y agoThis seems pretty obviously a calculated publicity stunt. And it worked. I'd certainly never heard of Quirky before. Now I know not only who they are but that they stake their brand on protecting small inventors. That message will probably outlast any remembrance that they essentially smeared a beloved company. From that point of view, I say congratulations. But OXO handled it brilliantly and turned it into a PR coup of their own.
- rrreese 14y agoI've heard of neither Quirky or OXO before reading this. Now I know that OXO make cool designed products, while Quirky are the sort of company I would rather not do business with.
- nnnnni 14y agoThe Quirky CEO was on Jay Leno's show last night. Interesting.
- nnnnni 14y agoThe Quirky CEO was on Jay Leno's show last night. Interesting.
- krschultz 14y agoOXO has ~100 people. The parent company has a market cap of 1.6B (including Pur water filters and a few other brands). Quirky has ~80 people and $91 million in VC funding. Assuming Quirky is operating under the normal VC rules, they want to soon be a billion dollar company - larger than OXO. I find it strange that Quirky is playing up the "david vs goliath" angle. If you've been in both of their offices, Quirky actually feels like they have more money. More importantly, if Quirky wants to be a billion dollar company, they are going to have to do something a whole lot more innovative than a better dust pan.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mason55 14y ago> OXO has ~100 people The crazy thing is that they make eight and a half different products per employee. When you think about the fact that you're talking about physical products, that's crazy.
- drharris 14y agoIndeed, and decent products at that. I've enjoyed all but a few of the OXO products I've bought, which is more than I can say for a few of the Quirky products I've bought (pivot power for one).
- user-id 14y agoQuirky are really pushing the "David & Goliath" angle in their latest response. http://www.quirky.com/blog/post/2013/01/quirky-stands-strong-following-oxo’s-response/ http://www.quirky.com/blog/post/2013/01/quirky-stands-strong...
- bruceboughton 14y agoThe comments on that piece are depressing.