Oh, it is very relevant to this discussion. You remember the phrase I always mention. You have quoted me many times. "What is old is new again!" I mentioned, in an earlier post that GE already used this type of marketing to sell their upright and portable-Tidy. ORECK later markets their upright with their portable as "purchase upright and get the portable vac for free". HOOVER comes along and markets it w/o the "FREE".
You cannot go around and say things are copied. There are only a finite number of ways to produce/market. We cannot go around and say one vacuum cleaner copied another, because they are selling door-to-door like the previous company. One company has a vacuum cleaner line, then another company comes out w/their line that looks similar. They have made slight changes though. There are times that these changes actually benefit the user.
A company designs a vacuum cleaner w/a swiveling hose-copied. A company puts a hose on the front-copied There are/were many uprights w/bags on the back, many w/ bags on the side, and many w/bags mounted in front.
There have been products, since the beginning, that look similar. Like I have said many years ago, this works out for the purchaser. As long as you know there is a difference between the machines, a person could be fine w/it.
If you want to go way back in vacuum history, HOOVER in the late 20's/early 30's [? little fizzy on the exact years] offered the model 425 upright with dustette handvacuum as side kick for a pair. 
I also said that the MSRP of $499 for the HOOVER pair was too expensive anmd not worth the $. Why? Made in China. I said the price for the pair should be $250. Last time I checked, the HOOVER duo is selling for that price by most retailers.
Carmine D.
PS: Just to remind, I bought 4 XL Classics at different times directly from ORECK w/o the compact canister. Just the upright. For $150-$199. ORECK stores also offer just the XL uprights on special sale days throughout the year for similar prices as these or slightly higher depending on the length of warranty. The 4 XL's I purchased new came with one year warranty. BTW all still working well for their users. Long past the warranty. Mine turns 4 years next month.
This message was modified Mar 29, 2011 by CarmineD
