It's an intriguing pattern, and I'd imagine this will follow the same way that Gary Fong approached it.
(Background: A bunch of eBay sellers began selling the "Lambency" flash diffuser, an exact copy of the Lightsphere, complete with the domes and chrome deal. The parts were completely interchangeable and the only difference seemed to be the fakes reeked (literally) and the packaging. Fong bitterly and belligerently pursued the violators and for the most part won - the Lambency is mostly nowhere to be found. It should be noted that for a time, even Houston photo stores were selling a fong-rip off as the RPS flexi-dome.
Here's a video Fong posted one of (he has a team) his patent lawyers confronting a reseller. I'm not saying manufacturing $5 worth of plastics and selling it for $50 saying it'll make you a better shooter is right, but neither is theft.
The product, designed in the US (possibly) and manufactured overseas for cost purposes, then shipped back here at an insane price for insane profits. Eventually, someone copies the design and resells it at a much cheaper cost. In some cases it's an exact copy (just like the Lighsphere) and in some cases corners are cut to make it even cheaper (Like Benro tripods vs. Gitzo) but they look the same.
So it's quite possible that if another manufacturer has merely copied the design, we could see this disappearing should the parent company of the original design decides to pursue the patent violation.
Check out eBay, there are plenty of imitations
right up next to the real ones.
And then there's
this one that's intrigued me a little, it looks like a completely different design, given that it's a teardrop shape and the light doesn't complete a full circle. It's also mainly shipping from the US and claim to be US made (warning against foreign counterfeits), which leads me to believe that someone just re-engineered the current higher priced designs and built something similar, but different. If it were to be argued in court, one could say that both the Orbis and RayFlash are a "circular" light, whilst the "O-flash" is teardropped.
Sorry this is a bit OT. Odds are the plastic may be a bit cheaper but it does the same job at a lower cost.
LIKES Received: 
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