Rebranding products

[ChEeZeBaLL]

I've been researching what is necessary in order to begin selling my own brand of laptop computer.

So far i've learned that practically all major laptop brands (Dell, HP, Toshiba...) purchase their laptops from Original Design Manufacturers (Quanta and Compal being the 2 largest companies) and simply stick their logo onto the computer and resell it as their own brand.

I haven't been able to locate any kind of information in reguards to ordering directly from the ODM companies, but I imagine the quantities of product that are required to be purchased per order is way out of my league if I want to start my own small business.

My question is, would it be legal to buy a medium sized quantity of a rebranded laptop (such as Toshiba) from an online retailer, make certain modifications to the appearance as well as hardware and software changes of the laptop, and then rebrand and sell the computer under my own brand name?

[ChEeZeBaLL]

does anyone have any idea on this?

[mcstartup]

In general, you should be able to do what you are talking about, so long as you aren't taking credit for someone else's work. Buying computers, doing some integration, and selling at a markup is what value-added-resellers do all the time.

However, you should call these ODM companies to see what the minimum quantities are. My guess is that you'll be able to buy the components you need for far cheaper through them than by buying retail laptops and working from there.

There are a number of laptop vendors outside the name-brands everyone knows, and they have to be buying their parts from somewhere. Start making some calls and explain to the vendor what it is you are trying to do. Heck, call some of these smaller laptop manufacturers as a "concerned consumer" and ask them where they get their parts from.

[GermanAudioTech]

That sounds like a brilliant idea. But why don't you go further and custom built your OWN computing systems instead of using existing platforms? That should cut down on costs.