Alright, folks! Buckle up because today we’re diving into some serious shenanigans happening in the business world. Eric’s shining a spotlight on a certain Chinese company, Vevor, that's been on a mission to swipe American inventors' ideas right out from under their noses—talk about a low blow! We’re talking outright patent theft, and it’s enough to make any small business owner throw their toolbox across the room. But wait, there’s more! We’ll also dish out the deets on some critical product recalls you’ll want to keep an eye on, so your home improvement projects don’t turn into a trip to the ER. So grab your coffee (or whatever helps you cope with this madness), and let’s get into it because this midweek update is packed with juicy info that’ll have you questioning your next Amazon purchase! In today's midweek update, we dive headfirst into the murky waters of patent theft and the ongoing saga of small businesses battling corporate giants. Eric's taken a magnifying glass to the troublesome practices of Vevor, a Chinese company notorious for its flagrant disregard for intellectual property rights. As he lays out the case, it's not just a few bad apples; it's a whole orchard of innovation being pilfered right under our noses! With examples like the Vevor electric vacuum suction cup that shamelessly mimics the Grabo power tool, Eric passionately argues that these kinds of practices are not just wrong—they're damaging the very fabric of American entrepreneurship. He’s got some spicy hot takes on how these companies are undercutting quality and creativity, leaving inventors and small businesses in the dust. So grab a seat and some popcorn as we explore what’s happening behind the scenes and why it should matter to you, the consumer. But wait, there's more! Eric also touches on some crucial recalls that you absolutely need to know about. From the Electrolux gas ranges that could pose a burn hazard to those sketchy Amazon Basics knives that might just slice your finger open instead of that camping apple, this segment is all about keeping you safe while you navigate the wild world of home improvement. He emphasizes the importance of staying informed and proactive, inviting listeners to check out the Consumer Product Safety Commission for the latest updates. It's a rollercoaster ride of information that mixes humor with urgency, making sure you don’t just laugh but also learn a thing or two about protecting yourself and your wallet. As we wrap things up, Eric reflects on the broader picture of our remodeling and construction economy, which seems to be spiraling downward in his Portland backyard. He shares his frustration as he watches local tradespeople head for greener pastures in other states while commercial properties plummet in value. It’s a stark reminder of the challenges facing our economy and the importance of supporting local businesses against the tide of foreign competition. Through witty banter and real talk, we’re left pondering what the future holds for American innovation and craftsmanship. So tune in, buckle up, and let’s navigate this wild ride together!

Takeaways:

1. In this episode, Eric dives into the alarming trend of Chinese companies, like Vivor, blatantly stealing American inventions, highlighting the urgent need for awareness about intellectual property theft.
2. We discuss how small businesses are struggling against these big corporations that rip off their designs, leaving inventors feeling frustrated and powerless in the face of such blatant piracy.
3. Eric shares some shocking examples of cheap knockoffs flooding the market, which may look similar to trusted brands but are often of much lower quality and could cause safety issues.
4. Important recalls are on the table, including Electrolux gas ranges and Amazon Basics knives, reminding listeners to stay alert and check for recalls to ensure their safety.
5. The state of the remodeling industry is rough, especially in places like Portland, where local builders are facing economic challenges and moving elsewhere for work opportunities.
6. Finally, we touch on some oddball legislation in Oregon that's trying to ban animal processing, leaving us scratching our heads and wondering what in the world is going on.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. aroundthehouseonline.com
2. aroundthehousehq

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Vivor
2. Grabo
3. Electrolux Group
4. Frigidaire
5. Amazon
6. Amazon Basics
7. Wagner Spray Tech

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

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Foreign.

The House with Eric G. YOUR go to source for everything Home Improvement.

Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric

G. Is here to guide you through the latest tips, tricks and trends.

So grab your toolbox, put on your

thinking cap, and let's get to work

right here on around the House with

Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything home improvement.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me.

Happy midweek, guys.

It is Wednesday morning and here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, spring is coming in, which I absolutely love.

And we got a great show coming up this weekend while we talking a little bit more spring stuff.

But today in this kind of midweek special update that we do, I wanted to talk about something that's a big deal out there and I like protecting small businesses.

But I tell you what, there are companies out there right now that are big companies that are absolutely ripping off, and I mean ripping off small inventors, people out there that are selling products that they have designed and they have put their blood, sweat and tears in.

What company am I talking about?

Vivor?

Yeah, you might see them if you go to Vivore out there.

These guys are a Chinese company and they are widely known for stealing patents and intellectual property from American companies.

I can go down here and see so many things that are just absolute blatant ripoffs.

And I'm talking tools, for instance.

I can go down and just see all of these things that these companies out there have done a great job to develop, build, file patents for.

I mean, great example.

I was sitting here looking online and this came up and I'm Looking right here, $115 Vivor electric vacuum suction cup.

And in my opinion, they are 100% ripping off the Grabo power tool.

And it absolutely drives me insane.

There are so many brands.

I can go on to this thing and look at just how these guys are taking intellectual property.

And if you go online, you can see all the stuff that these guys are ripping off and they have so many lawsuits for patent infringement.

But here's the problem.

They are copying this stuff.

They're having it made cheaper with lower quality stuff like this one.

Here is $115 that they're selling.

Here's the issue.

If you're going to be a company like Grabo, for instance, and here's the problem.

They're going to spend millions of dollars suing a Chinese company that is selling over here that is 100% ripping them off, but they're gonna spend millions of dollars.

So do you go after them?

Can you even track it down?

And so it really drives me nuts watching these guys out there.

And we've talked about this in the past, but I can go through and just take a look at the sprinkler hoses.

And you know, they have, for instance, under watering essentials, I'm not gonna mention this brand.

Cause I'm not trying to advertise for these guys.

But they have a retractable hose reel that is just like the other ones you see out there by the popular brand that's out there.

And they're knocking it off for half the price.

And is it cheap?

Yeah, you can see it's cheap.

It's not nice like the other one is, but they're making it as a copy of that.

And it absolutely drives me nuts.

And so I think what I want to do is I want to sit here and maybe do a video series on some of this.

So we'll talk more about that down the road, but be careful.

Guys, I don't know what to tell you what to do here, but I think it's absolutely wrong supporting these companies that are knocking stuff off.

And I think it'd be a lot of fun to do some exposes on some of this stuff, because I want to be able to go in here and go, no, we're not doing this.

And I think I would like to take the real thing and compare it to the not so real thing.

So we're going to have some fun with that.

And I'm going to expose this here.

Because I tell you what, the last thing I want to see is small companies that are paying enough right now trying to deal do work in our economy that we have out here with tariffs and everything else, which can either be hurting you or harming you, depending on what side of the fence you're on.

But I want to make sure that I'm exposing these guys.

So when you guys are out shopping, you think a little bit and go, wow, wait a minute.

Eric's right on that.

Why are we giving the Chinese government here our money when there are American companies making this stuff, selling this stuff, and these guys are ripping off on their hard work?

So I think we need to have Congress or somebody step in, which I hate to say is going to be super tough to do.

But I tell you what, somebody needs to step in and absorb.

Maybe it is the US Government.

Maybe they step up and say, hey, on this patent infringement stuff like this, we're gonna go out and we're gonna Cover those costs for you.

And when we recover them, we'll put them back into our coffers for the court costs and stuff and keep it going.

Because if you sue Vivor and they go, yeah, that's a blatant ripoff.

And they get paid great.

They can pay for the lawyer's fees and cover it.

So that's how I see it.

I hope companies can do that and I hope that we can get our government to step in here and to say, enough of this madness, because it's madness to me.

I don't like it.

I think it's going to be a huge problem down the road.

And Amazon has been getting a little better on this stuff.

But since VIVA is the one making it and they're farming it out to people out there, they're basically taking a product, sending it off and say, make one just like it.

And then, you know, weeks later it's showing up on their page and there's tons of lawsuits.

You can jump up on there and take a look and see how many big companies are taking these guys to court, and rightfully so.

We're seeing a ton of this stuff.

Anyway, guys, just think a little bit about that when if you're on that site or others, like Amazon for instance, and you're seeing products that are just like the real one.

You know, I talked about it last year.

IQ did one.

It's my favorite vice.

And yeah, on Amazon, there's a direct ripoff and they're selling it for a little more than half the price.

But I don't like it.

So if we can stop that from happening, the better off we all are.

And it's gonna keep that business here in the US versus somebody that's just stealing it out of our back pockets.

Nobody likes that.

All right, guys, our next segment here, we're just going to talk about recalls real quick.

There's a couple out there that are worth talking about.

One of them is Electrolux Group recalls Frigidaire gas ranges.

Due to burn hazard, the ovens in the range can experience a delayed ignition of the oven's bake burner, posing a risk of burn hazards to users.

So consumers should stop using ovens in the recall ranges immediately and contact the Electrolux Group for a free repair.

They will provide professional in home installation of a new bake burner at no cost to consumers.

But you can still use the cooktop, just no baking.

And there's about 100 and almost 175,000 of those in the U.S. and 5,300 in Canada.

And if you like cheap knives, Amazon recalls Amazon Basics camping folding pocket knives due to laceration hazards and the folding mechanism on the blade can fail to remain properly secured in the closed position.

So get a hold of, well, don't use the knife and register for the recall over at Amazon where you got it.

And then the last one I saw here, which was kind of interesting, there's a couple other little tiny ones in here.

Wagner spray tech recalls 900 series power steamers due to burn hazard.

Detached hose can get a excessively hot and the nozzle gun can expel hot water during use after the trigger is engaged posing a serious burn hazard.

So don't use it.

There's about 700,000 of these little things and these have a steam, you know, hose, they're yellow.

Wagner Spray Tech so take a look at that.

And you can find all these@cpsc.gov that's the great place to find it right there.

And that's stay on top of these things.

Check for yourself.

There's a lot of other kids stuff on there as there always is.

Here's one more thing I wanted to talk about today that's kind of interesting.

I wanted to talk about kind of our building economy out there, remodels, construction, that kind of things.

It is so fascinating.

I'm here in Portland, Oregon as we talk about all the time in the show in the metro area at least.

And the thing that I see here is our remodeling and building locally is in its worth spirals for 15 or 20 years.

It's not good, not good at all.

Well, here's the thing.

Other states that aren't running it like we are are doing great.

So I am seeing so many of my friends that are building people around here, electricians, plumbers, all those guys heading out to go work other jobs in other states.

Maybe it's Utah, maybe it's Idaho.

And it's been really rough here.

And we're seeing that commercial properties, I'm seeing hotels, I'm seeing towers, I'm seeing buildings being sold at 30% of the perceived value, 20% of what they bought it for.

I mean we're seeing pennies on the dollar here on these things.

And it is absolutely stunning to see how bad our commercial properties have gone down here.

And a lot of that's because, well, just how they're running the city.

And we're not going to get into that here.

I mean it's, you can watch the news and Portland makes it all the time with can you believe what they're doing over there we're going to talk about a little bit on this weekend show.

But I mean they are actually trying to.

In Oregon there is a group of people and this is the stupidest thing I've seen in a long time.

I mean this is retarded.

This is how bad this is.

They are trying to outlaw people killing animals for food.

So yeah, can't go to the butcher, can't process chickens, can't process meat.

You can't set out mouse traps, you can't poison mice, rats.

They are going to make that if they get their way a hundred percent illegal.

So there goes the hunting, there goes the fishing.

All of our fishing industry on the coast would be illegal.

And it's absolutely insane.

They almost have the 120 so thousand signatures we'll talk about on this weekend show a little bit.

But come on, that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

And I think we've got enough people eating tasty animals out there.

The PETA people out there saying we need to pass this.

Hopefully we're smart enough here in Oregon.

But my questions always arise when that happens because I wonder sometimes how we made that happen and pass some of the stuff that happens during the initiative process.

But considering Oregon just took 800,000 voters off the voter rolls here due to air quotes maintenance, we'll see if things go differently with with the next voting time we have around here.

So not getting into politics here but just some of the crazy stuff we're seeing.

If you're in one of the more reasonable states out there, be very happy that you're there and we'll see what happens over here.

Cause hopefully we'll have some common sense prevail, which has not been the case.

But I'm thinking people are waking up a little bit and seeing the craziness here.

All right, everybody, I'm going to wrap this up.

Have a great rest of the week.

I appreciate all of you out there.

You got a question or comment?

Just hit me up aroundthehouse online.com and you can sit there and send a message to me.

I'll answer you back.

I always do.

Thanks for tuning in to around the House.

We'll see you this weekend.

Thanks for tuning in to the around the House show.

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