My 2 cents......
Unfortunately, the OP is quite vague as to what particular products he has issue with. If he were to list particular products that he feels are knockoffs, then perhaps we could discuss each and maybe able to make some reasonable conclusion.
When I started
vaping about 4 months ago, I had no clue as to the history of the e-cig and who first developed what device.
I just wanted to quit smoking and thought vaping may work (it did).
Obviously, as a new vaper I looked for a good device at a reasonable price. I was not interested in researching the history of each device and who may have a claim to the intellectual property (IP) rights of each device.
Although I have much more knowledge now as to the history of the e-cig, I still find that it would be difficult to identify the IP of each device. As a consumer, it isn't really my job to do that anyway. If a product is legally available to me, then I have to assume the IP issues have been addressed. If for example, Zen believes (he doesn't) that he owns the IP for rebuildable Genesis atomizers (he doesn't), then he would be responsible to protecting that IP. It isn't my responsibility to do that for him.
I know that isn't completely effective, however, it isn't possible for consumers to sort out all the potential IP rights of everything they buy.
Unless a product is being sold as a say, Provari, when it is in fact clearly not a Provari, I don't think this is an issue for which consumers should be blamed. Thus, IMO criticizing people for buying say an AGA-T as immoral or otherwise wrong somehow is wrong headed.