I appreciate this space to have the discussion, so thank you.
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Louqe is clearly insanely busy at the moment. Not to mention it wouldn’t exactly look great for them to publicly respond to this.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with clearly pointing that that the Nouvolo Steck has obvious design influence—to put it incredibly lightly—from the Louqe Ghost S1. Obviously, no one should be starting flame wars, doxxing, etc. But trying to silence a basic discussion on the matter is a bad move.
If someone has the gall to essentially copy an already popular project on here, then they need to be adult enough to deal with people calling them out for what’s obvious.
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You absolutely hit the nail in the head. Your “LAN M4-SFF” mock-up is absolutely on point. That’s essentially the difference between the two cases. Nouvolo has a post about interior changes, which is not the concern here.
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The minute exterior differences are as follows:
1. Power LED has been moved from above power button to bellow.
2. No ragtag on top.
3. “Indents” on the top hat .(I’m guessing to place your fingers to remove, since there’s no rag tag.)
4. Removable feet. (Moot point since they’re removable and Louqe listed removable feet as an add-on and even has renderings of them.)
From Louqe add-on PDF here:
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@Thehack previously eloquently stated how you can use a similar internal layout, because yes, there are only so many ways to lay out internal components to minimize volume. However, that does not mean the exterior has to be a 99.9% clone to another design.
The C4 and SM550:
Clearly these two cases utilize entirely different design languages. There would be absolutely no way to mistake the two for each other, despite using similar interior layouts.
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Moreover, Nouvolo is trying to use this Cooler Master as prior art for stackable cases:
No one is trying to say that Louqe is the only company that can have an expandable PC case. Trying to use this Cooler Master as a defense is obtuse at best and intentionally misleading at worst. Surely they can acknowledge that the stackable expansion system is the least of the worries here.
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Even Nouvolo themselves is using Louqe Ghost S1 photos to try to figure out water-cooling in their own case:
Nouvolo themselves again directly compared their case to Louqe by saying:
(emphasis mine)
Another reference to Louqe:
(emphasis mine)
If Nouvolo themselves repeatedly compare their own product to Louqe's, then they acknowledge that it's incredibly derivative of the Ghost S1. There would be zero reason to slyly call out Louqe if they didn't know their product was a clone and had an overlapping customer base of those who either ordered a Ghost S1 or were interested in one.
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Here's a collection of Louqe Ghost S1 and Nouvolo Steck photos mixed up together:
Now tell me it isn't obvious.
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The lack of concern from SFF staff so far about this is honestly disheartening. Perhaps that will change with the statement they release. I don't see why anyone would bother working their ass off designing their own case only for someone else to come on the same forum and steal your entire exterior design with lazy changes.
I'm tired of reading about how "the market" should design if this is ok. That's bs. SFF can and should take a clear position that this kind of practice is unacceptable. At least make design thieves sling their product somewhere else.
Stop defending design theft and instead support the creators on this platform that actually contribute new ideas and products to the SFF community.
Frankly, I'm surprised I'm spending the time writing this as I've been waiting for my Ghost S1 since their original launch over a year and a half ago. But as a design professional myself, this really upsets me. Louqe is far from perfect—and their communication is honestly awful at times—but at least their design isn't stolen.
