Many questions come to mind in light of the past day's posts. (These questions are not intended to cast aspersions on anyone's information or position, by the way. Just thinkin' out loud, sort of...)
If Ludo, the owner of Janty, truly was the creator of the original RY4, as he stated, I wonder how that went down? There he was at a manufacturing facility in China back in 2006 or 2007, presumably one that produced
eliquids. Did he simply put on an apron in the lab kitchen and grab flavorings off the shelves like Julia Child making a sauce for
coq au vin? Or was he aided by a chemist/sous chef who mixed trial liquids for him, then altered the recipe according to Ludo's reactions and suggestions?
Was the manufacturing facility owned by Dekang? And how did Dekang acquire rights to the "recipe"? Or did they? Did Ludo make a deal to share the recipe with Dekang? Or did the chemist just begin using Ludo's recipe to produce the newly-christened RY4, with or without Ludo's blessing? I mean, how
ad hoc was all this? And was it formalized later with agreements and contracts, or disseminated "under the table?"
If the Ludo/Janty recipe was the original, were the various subsequent Dekang versions duplications, facsimiles, approximations, or permutations that pushed the envelope by altering/adding flavors and the changing the mix of elements?
If RY4 was created by Ludo on that visit, what about RY1, RY2, and RY3? Did those exist previously? Or were they the first through fourth "experiments" of that day, with each subsequent iteration being a further flavor refinement? Or did Ludo and/or the chemist start with RY3 and work from there to make RY4?
On a lighter note, is Ludo the "Colonel Sanders" of ecig liquids? And is this whole mystery tantamount to a debate about which is the "true" KFC fried chicken---original recipe or extra crispy?
Why are there no legions of lawyers cranking out cease-and-desist court orders about the use of the name "RY4" by unauthorized pirate vendors/suppliers making up their own ersatz recipes but
calling it RY4, like bogus bathtub gin in the 1920s being labeled Canadian Club (or even more like Marlboro forcing ecig vendors to change the names of their Marlboro-facsimile juices, as has recently occurred)? I mean, surely
someone thought about trademarking the name RY4 and its formulation. Or was the cat already out of the bag by that time? Or are the trademark/copyright laws in China vastly different from those on this side of the Pacific pond?
I'm as curious about this fascinating mystery as anyone else and would love to learn the authentic history, although---as I wrote in a previous post---I'm somewhat of an infidel in that I don't really care whether I vape the "original" RY4 or a 7th-generation evolutionary mutant. RY4 is like pizza to me; I like it in many forms, some of which barely resemble each other except to share certain common ingredients. I guess that makes me an RY4 "liberal" rather than an RY4 "conservative." LOL.
Anyway, I hope those who know the history will enlighten us further.
