Is Brookstone’s Bedfan a Knockoff ?
It seems that Brookstone the gadget retailer is taking credit for a product the was invented and patented by someone else, back in 2000. What is so interesting about this is that Tompkins’, the inventor of the original black color BedFan® developed back in the year 2000, had allowed Brookstone, along with other retailers, to sell his original black patented Bedfan, from 2008 to 2012 see Tompkins’ original black Bedfan on Brookstone’s website back in 2010 click here to see archive, the images are missing but the copy and product manual can still be seen.
The original BedFan® had been selling online, and through specialty retail stores since 2008. The original made in the USA black BedFan® has also been seen on the Dr. Oz show “Night Sweats” episode back in 2010. The video can be seen on ww.doctoroz.com/videos/night-sweats it was posted on 12/07/2010, before Brookstone started retailing Tompkins’ original Bedfan. OnlineBedStores.com could only conclude that in 2012 Tompkins ran into a problem, when Brookstone, stopped selling Tompkins’ original Bedfan, and started to advertise and promote a newly designed white BedFan.
Through our research at OBS we have discovered that Brookstone, the gadget retailer had created and patented their own knockoff version of the Bedfan in white, that they now manufacture in China. click here to see Brookstone’s Bedfan patent. More..
In August 2012 Tompkins filed a lawsuit against the gadget retailer. It turns out, according to lawsuit documents filed 08/31/2012, Brookstone during the course of their business relationship with Tompkins, asked to take over production of Tompkins’s Bedfan and move production from Texas to China. According to the lawsuit, Tompkins refused to move production of the Bedfan to China.
Thereafter, Brookstone surreptitiously developed a knockoff of Tompkins’ Bedfan, which Brookstone called the “Bed Fan” and began palming it off as their own “Bed Fan”. What is also very interesting according to the lawsuit, is that Tompkins owned at least two trade secrets: his plans to add (1) a wireless remote control and (2) a filter in the front to the next version of his Bedfan. Tompkins’s kept these trade secret plans secret from the public. During the course of their business relationship, Tompkins revealed these trade secret plans to Brookstone. More..
Brookstone Bed Fan: Developer Video Published by Brookstone Inc. on Aug 7, 2017
When Tompkins informed Brookstone about his trade secret plans, he told Brookstone’s representatives not to tell anyone what he had told them, because he was still working on implementing these improvements. This clearly indicated that Tompkins expected Brookstone to keep his trade secrets confidential. Brookstone improperly used this confidential information by integrating Tompkins’s planned improvements into its “Bed Fan” knockoff. To see lawsuit document. click here
We do not know what the outcome of the lawsuit was, or whether or not there was a settlement. What we do know is that Tompkins recently completed a successful fully funded Kickstarter campaign and has gone into production of an all NEW bedfan he named the “bFan®”. The bFan® is more powerful with stronger air flow and more stable on the floor than the knockoff version.
The “bFan®” is available for sale through select smaller online retailers, see OBS authorized retailers at the bottom of this page.
