For small to medium size hardware companies that want to make their products easy for customers to repair and tinker with, and at the same time make it difficult for competitors to to copy the design, what are the options?
Adafruit has succeeded here, I think mostly due to the great online community, innovative support, and the large volume of products they offer. But some Kickstarters have been ripped off by Chinese firms, sometimes before the Kickstarter even ships.
I see a few options:
- Build a brand and community around the product(s)
- Lock the firmware down and make tinkering available through the use of an API or scripting (less flexible as firmware cannot be open sourced, and doesn't allow for better repair and tinkering)
- File and enforce patents (expensive)
- Tie to a cloud based service, i.e. Philips Hue (annoying if that's not the main product being sold)
If others have put more thought into this would be happy to hear your thoughts, or read any resources you are aware of.