Eric,
Firstly my thanks for your reply, and I understand your concerns, and your feeling of anger at the thought of your lures and products, which you have put so many years into developing and testing and getting them to the level at which they are today.
Secondly, I sent a mail to you first thing this morning, to both address on your website,
www.orionlure.free.fr, both of which were bounced back to me, and I sent a third one to the address you have posted up in this forum under the Orion Lures thread that you yourself posted in the Tackle and Techniques section of the thread. Please let me know if you didn't recive it, and please give me an address to which I can forward the mail.
I asked the moderator of sealine to remove the images for the very reason that we didn't want ourselves associated with lures that are direct copies of yours. These images were taken, by someone else, as I said, and shot on one of our brochures which is the yellow and black logo bearing behind each lure. I did not put this with these lures, and this is why I asked for them to be removed.
Yes my business partner did contact you, for the reasons of aquiring some of your lures, not to directly copy, but, as explained, to see if we could somehow figure out how you built them, materials and technique wise, and try to build our ouwn lures in a similar way.
Regarding the lures on display at the stand. We did not take any orders for them, from retairs or traders of any kind at the show, because we had no plan to trade with them in anyway whatsoever. We had them on display merely as examples of high end poppers and stickbaits, which are not availble here in South Africa at all, and very few, if any South African anglers have seen such. What is displayed in the images posted, is all the lures we have, the builders made 3 of each. The Show was a public open show, not a Trade show.
I understand, and I do respect the amount of time, skill and effort you have taken into developing your lures, and the reasons they have become so popular with anglers around the world, with good reason.
I hope you can understand that as I have said, we have no desire or plan to make any copies of your lures for resale purposes in any way shape or form. Part of what makes your lures so great is that they have been designed and built and tested by a great angler like yourself, and people know and understand that, as do I. For us to try and jump onto that band wagon would be foolish as well as disrespectful.Your lures are so unique, obviously, look at the pictures of them, for us to try and blatantly copy them, would be crazy.
Once again I would like to apologise for what you have taken us to be attempting to do, and I hope that you can take my word, that what I have said to you, regarding the fact that we are not making copies of your lures, nor had any plans to do so.
We wish to be as open a business as possible Eric, and we want to establish a solid reputation right from the start, and establish that on respect, good products and good service. One doesn't do that by copying a highly respected and valued member of the angling community. One does that by working hard to bring quality service and products to your clients, and creating unique products, original products which set you apart from everyone else, much like you have done.
I hope this clears the matter somewhat, and again I apologise profusely for this matter even existing at all in the first place.
Please be sure to put up an e-mail address to which I can send you a mail if you have not yet recieved my mailsfrom this morning.
My Thanks for your time and I look forward to your response,
Andre