Ego Form Factor Questions

[PixieVC]

You know, I learned something new today as I joined the forum and started poking around in the threads here, but I wanted to ask a question of the real 'pros'...

I've recently gotten into the heavy vaping to replace smoking - my first real "vape" device was an eGo made by Apollo, a 900 mAh battery version, with a CE4 cartomizer. I still have this around as my primary backup should my main Apollo EGOvv give me any issues...

Now - I like Apollo as a company - they're a local Bay Area firm, and I believe in keeping my money local, so I'd never really poked into eCig websites outside of Apollo's, so I'd assumed the EGO form factor, and CE4 cartridges, and such were Apollo innovations - until reading some posts here that said otherwise...

So I'm curious - what are the history of these designs? Who brought them to market first, and why haven't those making copies been sued into oblivion by the original designers and rights holders?

[Jeffb]

Joyetech was the first to manufacture the eGo for Janty. That was about 3 years ago. Since then many other manufacturers in China make an "eGo" style batt and even copy the logo. China doesnt have the stricy copyright laws we do. Apollo just gets their products made with their logo. They did not design the batt.

[PixieVC]

Aha, thanks for the clarification! I'll have to check them out and see what products and variants are available from them (as well as cartomizers and such)..

I didn't realize this was such a widely copied form factor - nice to know that replacement parts are in such easy supply.