it is a long story.
up till the last time i listened to the story about 6 months ago ergo was trying to patent the style of its carriers eventhough in the opinion of a few babycarrier vendors it is an old idea - dating back to at least the early 90's. they are also attempting to force out other slingmakers with similar designs, saying they have stolen the idea.
ergo, since about 2005 have actually copied some of the ideas from some of the same slingmakers it is trying to run out of business.
ergo is telling other sling vendors that if they stock the ergo and these other competition slings, then they cannot carry the ergo.
in addition, i think the story has moved on to ergo looking to sell its stores mainly in large department type stores and that WAHM vendors etc, are not worth the trouble. not too sure about this here.
one of the wierder stories was of a vendor who - at the customers' requests - were removing the dye from ergos and redying them in the colour that they customers were requesting.
an ergo rep visited this vendor, enquired about which colours were popular etc, took swatches then sent very stern threats via lawyers that they were damaging the integrity of the sling and the brand. However, the New Generation ergo actually appeared in these colours!
I think there are lot more tangled issues going on behind the scenes. I for one hope that they do not get copyright on what they claim are their original ideas. I have seen the carrier that came out in the 90's and it is too similar to the ergo for the ergo to want to own rights to so many of the 'innovations' that they claim are theirs.
frankly i would never buy another ergo again and would never recommend it.