-- new arduino on kickstarter? it is a fake?

Osgeld:
I am not going to get in the storm, but I will state that the Arduino team's enforcement of trademark is at bets lax, they tend to pick and choose based on the buddy system, and thats frankly not right.

An example I like to point to is the operator of http://www.avr-developers.com, originally it had the Arduino name in the url, but very quickly after the trademark went into play they told him to change the domain, of a site that was giving away arduino core files for damn near every AVR out there, to the community for the community.

Meanwhile the Sparkfun Arduino Main board, which is a repackaged Uno, but points people to use their fourms, and claims a 2010 Sparkfun electronics copyright is just fine, because "we like sparkfun, and they have done a lot to help the community"

Arduino Main Board Retail - RTL-11023 - SparkFun Electronics

Guess this guy just pissed someone off before they had their coffee

I think the issue here is more that these people are claiming to be something they are not. They used the Arduino name as a way to illegitimately gain credibility, rather than as a description of their product. This is not "a new product from the former Arduino's distributor", this is "a new product from two people that worked for a company that sold capacitors to an official Arduino distributor".

I have contracted out work to a friend of mine that does .Net developing. This would be like me hiring him for a new product, then putting "Check out NewThingHere from the Makers of Microsoft Windows!" to add credibility.