I would suggest contacting Cree and sending them info. I do not think they will take it lightly and even though their facility is in China, the US offices should be able to at least file law suits in the US.
It is shoddy and it is one of the biggest reasons I do not like to work with the Chinese. Sorry, I know not everyone is bad, but the present culture there, seems to applaud, condone and give incentive to this type of thing. Of course, if the rest of the world, (meaning all of us), didn't approve and demand it, there wouldn't be monetary incentive to do it.
Good points OL. While some may be good, ( well atleast ok maybe) other CREE “Clones” will likely be more inefficient, inconsistent tint claims, low CRI, etc. I am even noticing some of the Latticebright emitters even only have one bond-wire. (good bye to trying to drive more amps through that to achieve more output.
Of course, the other question would be, "Is Cree making these and selling them?" Well, it is a possibility. There's only so many facilities that can make these leds. If not Cree, then who is manufacturing them?
I feel that we will be safe for the time being to expect established brands like Olight, Nitecore, Fenix, Sunwayman, 4sevens, etc. will still come with premium CREE emitters, but those one-off brands & over-cloned lights, (all the various *fire brands, etc.) will soon be showing up with unknown, low-cost LED emitters with little QC ( and already may be using them)
I decided some time ago to buy only premium lights, olight etc. Sometimes there are bargains to be had. $44 for an olight warrior, $18 for a Skilhunt x0 are just some examples. It is not worth taking the risk buying more budget lights, by time you mod it, it ends up being more expensive.
I recently went against my own instinct and bought a convoy that was fake and someone pointed out they also had fake drivers! Now with the possibility of fake LEDs as well. No thanks!
LOL. I used to mod lights but by time you spent the money for a new driver, new LED you could be in for a few bob! And of course the host aren’t as good quality as a branded light.
The demand has been right here on the forum at times (rare times of course), I see here images of flashlights made by someone and requested to be cloned or copied, so the demand is sometimes blatant, like when you read posts that say something like: I am looking forward to a cheap clone of this light. While nothing seems to have been too serious, you know "clones" usually have some detail different to feel good you did not clone it 1:1.
As far as I know this is clothing industry thing where ultra expensive brands can be found for cheap due to defects at various stores, but those are upfront due to low production numbers, I mean it is understandable.
If CREE would do that then that would be high scale, destroying 5000 emitters is not a big deal, but in order for CREE to make any sense selling factory rejects they would have to sell huge numbers, 50,000pcs?
Nichia and CREE have sued several Taiwanese companies for patent infringement, I have not yet seen any law suit against Chinese companies.