If its true, lawyers aren't even going to buy them time, much less succeed in protecting their market share. Chinese manufactures laugh at patents and American lawyers. Even if they closed every domestic reseller, there will be huge group buys and online orders. (like the 230 units in the Phx buy). That's pragmatic reality. Principle is harder. I very much dislike the fact that Chinese reverse engineer and rip off intellectual property (I don't know that that's been done here).
I have more than $300 in livestock, and I'm more than happy to roll some dice on this, and I think everyone acknowledges it is a roll of dice.
I want waves and $450 vs. 50 to $100 is saving more than "a few bucks." Up till now, I just did without, hoping something like this would come along. We're a few months into this and things look very good. People have Apex controlling them, and Reef Angel already has solutions that run them beautifully with no diy hack needed. I'd expect a lot more DOAs and failures going on for something like this made in China. It just hasn't materialized yet.
No doubt these pumps are going to fail, and they may fail twice as fast as the competition with no warranty recourse or very little. The problem for Ecotech/Tunze is that, a very large number of people are concluding that if they can even get 1 year out of the pump, its worth it and everything else is bonus. I'm not going to pay $350 more so I can send it back in, when I can pay $50-$100 for a new one and have parts pumps on hand. I'm sure the Ecotech/Tunze is better built, and better performing, and they stand behind their product. If they were $50-$90 more than Jebao, I'd have a hard decision.
Unless these pumps start leaching nasty stuff and killing tanks, Ecotech and Tunze have a serious problem. I, for one, am curious how they'll approach it! Maybe we start seeing little American and German flag decals for the tank. (joking) But if the wp pumps hold up pretty well over the next year, I think they're going to have to drop price, innovate, and adapt the business model.