BristleBot day 4 for us… A little update – We received our first email back from Scholastic today…
From: “Good, Kyle”
Date: February 20, 2009 11:21:40 AM EST
Subject: RE: “bristlebots” book from klutzAs we said, in light of this misunderstanding, we’re contacting the folks at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories in the interest of addressing the concerns that have been raised. Stay tuned…. Kyle
As of today (2/20/2009) here is the only public statement from Scholastic & Klutz.
Klutz is genuinely surprised by this reaction to our book. The development of “Invasion of the Bristlebots” by the Klutz creative team dates back to at least early 2007 and was developed internally like other Klutz products. In light of this misunderstanding, we’re contacting the folks at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories in the interest of addressing the concerns that have been raised.
It’s not about copyright, trademarks or patents, it’s about what type of company Klutz and Scholastic wants to be as they enter the world of makers – Klutz and Scholastic saw an original idea in 2007 called “Bristlebots” from Evil Mad Scientists and are now claiming they developed the *exact* same project, design and name “Bristlebots” all in secret and all in the same year. Now they are “genuinely surprised”. Later, the Scholastic & Klutz marketing team added a video to the Evil Mad Scientist YouTube page to promote their book and project by the same exact name and design.
We also have emails out to the author of the book, Pat Murphy. We’ll keep you posted. Be sure to check out the comments on the original post.
Update: There is a quote from Pat Murphy of Klutz / Scholastic on BoingBoing…
We (that’s me and some other folks at Klutz) will be talking to Lenore asap. (Today if all goes well.) I’ll keep you posted.
Update 2: Here’s an update from Lenore, Evil Mad Scientists…
(Feb. 20, 12:53pm PST): I just got off of a good phone conversation with Klutz and we’re exploring how we can get acknowledgment for Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.
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