Razer is a company that makes laptops and computer peripherals such as keyboards, mice, etc. The CEO announced on Monday that two Project Valerie laptop prototypes were stolen from their booth at the Consumer Electronics Show:
In a Facebook post early Monday, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan said he'd "just been informed that two of our prototypes were stolen from our booth at CES today."
"We treat theft/larceny, and if relevant to this case, industrial espionage, very seriously — it is cheating, and cheating doesn't sit well with us," Tan wrote, possibly suggesting a competitor stole the machines. "Penalties for such crimes are grievous and anyone who would do this clearly isn't very smart." Tan added that Razer has filed "the necessary reports" and is now working with CES management and law enforcement to catch whoever stole the prototypes. He encouraged anyone with information about the theft to reach out to Razer's legal team.
Also at Computerworld.
tomsHARDWARE has some updated info:
The theft occurred during what was likely a chaotic teardown of Razer's suite on the Las Vegas Convention show floor. Note that there's a $25,000 reward for information leading to the guilty party, good for a year from today.
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http://www.anandtech.com/show/11611/razer-files-for-ipo-in-hong-kong-to-raise-600-million
This week Razer has made a preliminary filing for IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company plans to raise $600 million for future growth, particularly in Asia. In addition, the funding is supposed to improve the company's overall march with investments in R&D as well as the brand. Razer's recent financial filings indicate Razer operated at a $20m profit in 2012-2013, but ran a loss of ~$70m in 2015-2016 because of multiple acquisitions as well as a tripling in R&D activities with a small uptick in revenue.
Razer started as a subsidiary of a computer peripheral maker Kärna in 1998 and quickly became famous for its Boomslang mouse designed specifically for FPS gamers and launched in 1999. Kärna ceased to exist in 2000 because of financial issues, but the Boomslang was so popular despite its price tag (which was high by the standards of the year 2000) that Terratec brought the Razer Boomslang back to market in 2003. Min-Liang Tan and Robert Krakoff (who used to be the GM of Kärna back in the day) acquired rights to the IP and the brand sometime in 2005 and established Razer Inc., as we know it today. Initially, Razer focused on mice, but the company gradually expanded its product portfolio with keyboards, headsets and other peripherals. Sometime in 2009-2010, Razer began to hire engineers from PC companies like Dell and HP with an aim to develop actual systems and go beyond peripherals. Today, the company offers various gaming gear, laptops, co-developed Razer Edition PC systems, and licenses its designs to others. Meanwhile, Razer is always in pursuit to expand its lineup of products and their distribution.
Previously: Razer Acquires Ouya Software Assets, Ditches Hardware
Razer's New Blade Pro: Desktop Performance in 0.9 Inches and 8 Lbs
Razer Prototypes Stolen at CES
(Score: 3, Funny) by stretch611 on Tuesday January 10 2017, @10:52PM
I wouldn't do such a thing....
but out of curiosity... anyone know where I can download the linux drivers for that laptop?
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday January 11 2017, @01:05AM
They're on a USB stick in the gym bag of the devs who haven't gone to the gym since this was issued to them.
Your best chance is to drop from the ceiling to steal it during their chiropractor session, or their unexpectedly-legit massage.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @11:20PM
cheating doesn't sit well with us
Yeah right. Cheating is how the liars got through school, how they got their tech certifications, how they passed interviews to get their jobs, and how they evade taxes. Cheating is a way of life for these people.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @11:23PM
Wow. You've got issues.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @01:55AM
Or posting to the wrong thread.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @12:07AM
What are the odds this is a PR stunt?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @12:20AM
Hopefully they forgot to tell the police this is a PR stunt and Mr CEO will land in pound-him-in-the-anus prison.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Appalbarry on Wednesday January 11 2017, @01:08AM
Ah yes, trade shows. Tear downs tend to be chaos, and by the time that they happen all of the responsible adults have left the room, left town, or are in the bar.
Still, nothing is quite so frightening as a dozen forklift driving, amphetamine fueled teamsters at the end of a fifteen hour overtime shift.
First rule of trade shows: be nice to the trades.
(Score: 2) by goodie on Wednesday January 11 2017, @01:16AM
Had somewhat of a similar experience back when I did a summer job in a web development shop in the late 1990s. There was a tv show that came to broadcast from our offices. Everything went really well but after the show, the crew that came to take away all the tv gear also stole a few pieces of computer equipment that were very expensive (e.g., fancy Sony laptops, webcams etc.). Everything was just so messy during the teardown that nobody saw a thing...
(Score: 2) by nethead on Wednesday January 11 2017, @02:24AM
Oh, I see that you have worked as an industrial decorator too!
Back in the very early 80s when working shows the phone installers would let me grab all the wire I wanted and a few phone sets too. One even gave me a Bell 212A DataSet because the data guys didn't show up.
How did my SN UID end up over 3 times my /. UID?
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday January 11 2017, @04:41AM
Having hardware stolen is and always will be a problem. But this talk of industrial espionage? If Intellectual Property law was sane, as in, didn't exist in its current form, that part wouldn't matter at all. Let the world copy with a will. Encourage it, in fact. What we should have is a system that does just that, by paying the inventor whenever someone uses their ideas. No "mother may I" system of having to ask permission and personally pay royalties, no. Let inventors apply to private and quasigovernment agencies for reimbursement from funds set up for just that purpose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @05:04AM
And how do they recoup the cost of development if everybody can just steal their work?
I have serious issues with the way that IP is handled, but hardware patents are absolutely necessary to ensure that the companies developing the products have some hope of recouping their costs. Without that, why would anybody bother to try and move things forward? It costs a ton of money to bring a product to market and for a lot of this stuff, the period for recouping the costs is only a matter of a few years, or even a few months.
This isn't like software patents or copyrights that have become rather grotesque, the hardware patents are still relatively sane.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday January 11 2017, @06:35AM
No, patents are not necessary. Payment is. Patents are merely bargaining power. It should be possible to pay inventors for their efforts, without patents. Possible to come up with fairer valuations, without patents.
The worst part is the basic idea intellectual property is founded upon. The notion that people can own ideas, and trade them as if they were material goods, is inherently flawed. When you call copying ideas "stealing", you buy into that flawed thinking. Also, the patent system has too many unintended bad side effects. It's worth considering whether the whole system ought to be scrapped.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @08:29PM
the patent system has too many unintended bad side effects
Citation needed
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday January 11 2017, @11:21PM
The stated intent of the patent and copyright system is to promote progress. As you suggest, it is likely the real intent of the lobbying of recent decades is to create monopolies over things which shouldn't have been monopolized, and the devil with progress. For instance, software patents. Cynical, and not the original intent. They want money, and they don't care how they get it. If they can sucker the legal system into handing them "damages", and doing the dirty work of policing for "infringement", they will, as they've shown many times.
Of course patent trolls don't care what kind of stinking mess they create. Why the judges bought their fallacious arguments is the question. Were the judges bribed or suborned somehow, or were they fooled? I, like many others, tend to think most judges weren't corrupted, they just didn't get it. Can't say the legal teams of the defense have done the best job either. Soon as the case turns into a question of whether infringement occurred, rather than whether there was anything to infringe, anything infringeable, they lose a major point of the defense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @05:59AM
I was going to say look out for cheap Chinese clones next available from next month, but the CEO is Chinese already. Clones are on their way anyway, "Rezar CT400 lapper-top"..
My guess is a tradie worker "scored" some "nice laptops" for his bros while working there after the show. Now they'll be terrified to return them.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Wednesday January 11 2017, @09:01AM
While to don't like Industrial Protectionism much, trademarks and trade secrets have their place.
These were prototypes. Prototypes are often (always?) more expensive than anything in actual production.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday January 12 2017, @08:46PM
That doesn't really require any IP law either though. You aren't selling them, you aren't mailing them out to competitors, they're only being touched by your own employees and people you have contracted with. Make them sign an NDA and you can enforce secrecy that way.
In this case, any damages would be the responsibility of the thieves, or the employees who allowed the theft to occur. No need to drag IP law into it, theft is already a crime, and the damages assessed are generally based on the value of the property stolen. If it's stolen by a major corporation for industrial espionage, that's far more valuable than if it was stolen by some guy to play WoW, and I'd expect a court to consider that as well. The courts can handle all of that without ever bringing IP law into it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @11:30PM
So I take it they didn't equip it with firmware/rootkit level LoJack protection? On company prototypes being taken out into public?
Yeah, the thief is guilty. So are they - of criminal stupidity and negligence.