DIYEFI.org Forum

According to the MS website, license cost is 4% of the sale, drops to 2% when you meet a minimum number of units sold. That sounds too good to be true to me.

I am considering get a MS license and brewing up my own ECU for market, I can add onboard lambda as well as some other really neat ideas I have.

What are the pitfalls with MS and dealing with B&G?

Regards,

Alan To

The pitfalls with MS are fairly well known, however if you were doing your own hardware you could solve many of them. About dealing with B&G, I don't know, get in touch with them, see what they have to say, and let us know how you get on. One thing that I will say is that they are not shy about being quick to sick lawyers onto people when they feel the need. So be careful.

Do you mind if I move this to non-free, it seems EMS related to me... :-)

Fred.

The licensing fees are low but they may not give you their agreement if they think your product will compete directly with one of their offerings or if they don't see big enough differentiators. But I haven't directly talked to them about this so this is inferred from other discussions.

I know that the goal of the MicroSquirt module was to have all MS2 based designs use it and do away with licensing since it would implicitly be included in the cost. So they may direct you this way. And if you wanted to go with MS3 then I don't know how that would work because there would be additional people involved.

Jean

jbelanger wrote:The licensing fees are low but they may not give you their agreement if they think your product will compete directly with one of their offerings or if they don't see big enough differentiators.

Great point, Jean. That is smart on their part. Lure people in to divulge their plans and get evidence and a record of said plans such that when they say NO and the people do it anyway, the lawyers have material to nail them with. Brilliant, and evil. I like it.

Fred.

This is from an email to an interested party who contacted me recently.

Al Grippo wrote:We only license for volume dealers who sell 1000 units or more
per month. In this case the license fee is 6% of the retail price,
but can be negotiated down if sales increase.

What it amounts to is ~18000usd (assuming 300usd sale price) per month, every month, whether you sell any or not. Basically no one can enter the market with this setup because DIYAutoTune already has the market nailed.

Pretty poor IMO. Moving this to non-free, too.

Fred.

The 1000-units-per-month relates to a retail operation selling the OEM MegaSquirt products. If a person wants to design a specialized ECU product using the MS code as a base, then the high quantities do not generally apply.

A long time ago I tried to negotiate to be a authorized reseller, as a company, it is fair to pay for it.
Each region has its market, method of business, force to sell a minimum per month is wrong.
Be based on the U.S. market is wrong, the goal should be defined according to the sales period.
It is essential to think how this will be the licensing, otherwise it will encourage piracy.

See this example: http://www.megasquirtracing.com.br/

This company manufactures everything in Brazil, all copied, but modified to support the market.
On his page, says it is licensed, authorized. But it is not true... I have proof that it is not.
And how to solve it if the trademark is not registered in this country?
My suggestion, a single official representative in each country, who will care for and defend the rights of the trademark.

Free only for non-commercial users.

[]´s

MotoFab wrote:The 1000-units-per-month relates to a retail operation selling the OEM MegaSquirt products. If a person wants to design a specialized ECU product using the MS code as a base, then the high quantities do not generally apply.

Got a reference for that?

They policies are pointless, There's a megasquirt counterfeiter in each country or several.

Here in Argentina there are at least 3 companies doing clones.... Some worst than the original some better ...

If they where more reasonable the MS world would be great....