Kemper's version of Dolan Tools
We love Kemper Tools. We've sold them for 25 years, and we'll continue to sell them. Kemper recently came out with a new series of tools, based on the original Dolan Tools. However, we will NOT stock that particular line of tools, nor will you find them listed on our website. "Why?" you might ask. The reason we won't publicize or stock them is because they are a DIRECT copy of Dolan Tools, down to the rings at the bottom of the handle and the tool numbers.
4 comments:
Anne Bracker-
Did Kemper buy out Dolan? Are they "copying" or are they simply taking over Dolan? Have you talked to Bob Dolan in the past 3-4 months?
Would be nice to get the whole story on this.
-Alex
As far as I know, Kemper did NOT buy out Dolan. I think that the Dolan family was not even aware of the striking similarities between Kemper's new line and the original Dolan tools. My sister talked with Maureen Dolan a couple of months ago and although Bob had had some health concerns which caused them to put the tool business aside for now, they were all doing okay. Beyond that, I really don't know.
Anne-
I saw on Clayart this weekend that Dolan is back in business. Fantastic! When will they start shipping out new products to distributors? What will happen to Kemper's copies? Patent infringement lawsuit?? Or will Kemper just stop making them?
We talked with Susan Dolan sometime around Thanksgiving. She indicated that limited supply shipments to dealers sometime after the new year, but I haven't heard anything about a specific time. As soon as we see the Dolan tools, we'll let people know (by posting on our website, here on the blog, etc).
As to the legal issues you mentioned, I'm not sure that the Dolan tools were patented, so any sort of legal action might not be possible. But I'm not a lawyer...I don't even play one on TV, so I don't know for sure if there's anything that the Dolans can do to even prevent Kemper from making the tool copies.
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