Jan 5th, '08, 21:07
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Joined: Jan 5th, '08, 20:57

ingenuiTEA ripoff? ("Tea Master")

by notyourbroom » Jan 5th, '08, 21:07

Here are two pictures of the box

For comparison, the ingenuiTEA

I don't have my ingenuiTEA with me right now (I'm on vacation) but as near as I can tell, the Tea Master is exactly the same in design-- even the wavy grippy handle looks the same to me.

I found it in a Teaopia store on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

If I had just seen another infuser device which followed the same basic principles and such, then I wouldn't find it remarkable, but the fact that it's exactly the same strikes me as very odd. So is the ingenuiTEA design unpatented, or licensed out somehow, or what? Anyone know the story?

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Jan 6th, '08, 09:06
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by Sydney » Jan 6th, '08, 09:06

If I had to take a blind guess, I'd say licensed.

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Jan 6th, '08, 09:13
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by brandon » Jan 6th, '08, 09:13

Actually, Teavana at your local mall also sells a very similar device, and then there is a pot sold by Chinese vendors that is not flared out at the top, but very similar in concept. This is not a unique idea, but a lot of folks on the US side are producing a pot that is very aesthetically similar with a round base, then flared going towards the top. I have no idea who in fact first came up with this design.

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