What does Trump have to do with this? Is he responsible for Pioneer defrauding Technics?
How are they "defrauding" Technics? Technics wasn’t producing turntables when the PLX came to market. It was only after the recent surge in vinyl sales that Technics got back in the game. They had sold off most of their original tooling as well -- something they wouldn’t have done if they were so concerned with intellectual piracy.
Pioneer improved upon the original 1200 design with a damped tonearm, detachable cables and higher torque motor. They were targeting the DJ market while the 1200 was originally marketed toward audiophiles. Regardless, if Pioneer was defrauding Technics there certainly would’ve been a legal confrontation. That’s how commerce goes in the modern world. The Chinese can get away with making exact clones of something and selling it on their home turff, but once a product is imported, the infringing company can easily be sued in U.S. courts. Technics certainly would’ve done just that, had any valid patents been violated. Remember also that Pioneer had been selling direct drive turntables with S-shape arms well before the arrival of the SL-1200, as were Kenwood and Yamaha. Did Technics ever have exclusive rights to those technologies? I highly doubt it. By your logic, one could argue that they pirated those designs from elsewhere, and therefore, they too are defrauders.
As for the cosmetics, they’re not quite the same either -- differences in magnitude similar to those of dozens of DD tables sold in 70s. The Pioneer is only sold in black. It has an anodized arm tube, different switchgear, different strobe color and even different tonearm geometry.
