So let me get this straight; if Item A is $500 and the knockoff is $300 then the original designer has a legit gripe. If item A is $10,000 and the knockff is $300 then the original designer has no gripe? That has to be the most ridiculous reasoning I have heard. If you copy someone else's work, without approval and without giving credit, it's wrong, plain and simple, dollar value does NOT make a difference.
As I stated, the designers have three options: 1) courts; 2) Mario and Vito; or make your case in the public arena. You're correct that it happens in every industry, but if only the designers are represented, there can be no debate.
How much originality can there be in a knife? If Item A is $3,250 and the knockoff is $300, how much does it cost the designer of Item A? Legally, it would be difficult to make a case. Just because it puts money into the pockets of the manufacturer of the knockoff does not mean that it cost the designer a cent. Those who buy the knockoff will never buy a knife from the original designer, though he may later down the road as he gets into the hobby. And in the end isn't it all about money?
The idea that every square centimeter of a knife is carefully taken into consideration and planned is a bit of fantasy. Like the cologne that is said to land a guy any babe he wants, it's more wishful thinking. A knife is
only a knife. It's a handle and a blade. You can make it of the finest materials and polish every square millimeter until there's not a single blemish, but when someone needs a knife to work with, he just isn't going to see the performance match the price difference.
Well, the manufacturer of the knockoff could offer compensation to the designer, and here I think is where the real issue is, but what would that do to the price of mainstream knives? As I said earlier, I could have improved on Strider's combat tanto design in five minutes with a sheet of paper. I'm only guessing, but I think Lynn Thompson was making a statement with his G.I. Tanto. First, the tanto was something that Lynn Thompson made popular. It wasn't original, but like anything else it had to be marketed. When Strider came along and said,
I'm gonna charge three hundred and twenty five bucks for this stamped blade, it's entirely possible that Lynn said,
not if I can give them pretty much the same thing for twenty-five bucks! In that case, yes, I think Thompson did cost Strider money, but I also think he wanted to provide people, particularly soldiers, with a reasonably priced alternative and show Strider to be somewhat of a charlatan. (Both knives are blocky and uncomfortable, in my opinion, and either could have been streamlined and improved easily; however, if Thompson was guilty of "intellectual" theft and slander, he's got deep enough pockets that Mickey Berger should have gone for for the big bucks if he'd had a case.) Both his combat tanto and Thompson's G.I. Tanto have been tested side by side, and Strider's high end knife showed little, if any, performance superiority.
I don't think the knife industry would be where it is today without Cold Steel. Like them or not, they've had a great influence on many of the designs they're now accused of copying. It's also fairly clear to me that many independent knife companies are appreciably better off today because of that influence.
...it is still wrong no MATTER how you look at it ... While it appears to be lost on you, with your own unique view of it being okay for CS, trust me, plenty notice. Hearing all the snickers and chuckles at the SHOT show this year, told me that plenty are taking notice.
And that's how it should be. People ultimately vote with their wallets and you'd probably be amazed at how many knife owners don't attend, or care about, the SHOT Show. Ethically, the case has not been made against Thompson. It's one thing to talk in generalities, but good heavens, the knife industry is no different than any other. Just recently the Air Force's lease on a computer program expired. They found this out after the software abruptly stopped working. Angered that a "time bomb" had been included in the software, resulting in its self destruction, rather than extend the lease, they had SAIC backward engineer the software, removing the self destruct. The original company sued the Air Force, crying foul. The Air Force, however, realizing that software that suddenly stopped working could be a security issue, exercised the law whereby the government could only be sued with the government's consent—and they weren't giving it. Was this wrong? Hell, yes, but I can understand the government's point about software with a hidden self destruct sequence.
Like it or not, Spyderco, Cold Steel, Kershaw, Benchmade, Buck, CRKT and others help keep knife making a thriving business, including the one-man-shop. If it weren't for them, many people never would have been attracted to knives in the first place. Only by providing inexpensive, attractive knives can these businesses stay in business, and Cold Steel is one of the biggest. Unlike Spyderco and Benchmade (both outstanding companies, BTW), Cold Steel's knives lack a single, distinctive look. My point is, without them, you wouldn't have the vibrant market there is today—and Lynn Thompson has made no bones about providing distinctive "designer"-type knives at affordable prices. The designers, though, can't have it both ways. Like it or not, Cold Steel's has a symbiotic relationship with the designers, whether the designers care to admit it or not.
Inspiration or ripoff, both or neither? The CS Black Sable is one of the examples
given of a blatant ripoff. But knives are made up of blades and frame/handles.
Certainly there isn't a ripoff here of the frame. The overall shape of the knife
is similar, but upon close inspection the frames on both knives are not very similar
at all. The blades, too, while being similar, are quite different. The Black Sable
blade is not nearly as upswept, and much of it's beauty is in the chiseled strip
at the top, giving it a distinct look. While it may have taken inspiration from
the Brian Tighe Stick Frame Lock (top), the Black Sable is not a frame lock,
and the blade has a distinct difference in both look and feel. Someone buying
a Black Sable might very well buy a Brian Tighe Stick Frame Lock in the
future, but it's unlikely that Tighe would lose any money over Thompson's
Black Sable. This is what makes it sticky ethically. 
), DngrRuss1, and since you're apparently very much back "in the know," were you ever able to ascertain, as you stated you were in the process of doing, whether Lynn Thompson and Cold Steel were involved in hiring of the private investigator that discovered the dirt on Mick Strider? When we last spoke of your endeavor, you stated that Lynn Thompson was contacted by the PI investigating Strider, and I asked you why on earth a PI investigating Mick Strider would have contacted Lynn Thompson. I don't recall you ever answering that question.
