Update: Fluke issued a statement on its Facebook page on Thursday to address SparkFun's multimeter issue, saying, in part:

Like any organization that designs and manufactures electronics, we actively work to stop lookalike products from making it to the marketplace. We do this to protect our company and the jobs of our employees. We also do so because it is a matter of safety for our customers. Our tools are used in high-energy industrial environments, where precision and safety is an absolute necessity. ... We understand how troubling this is for a small company serving the needs of DIY-ers and hobbyists. Here is what we are going to do. Earlier today we contacted SparkFun and offered to provide a shipment of genuine Fluke equipment, free of charge for them to sell on their site or donate. The value of the equipment exceeds the value of the Customs-held shipment. SparkFun can resell the Fluke gear, recouping the cost of their impounded shipment, or donate it into the Maker community. While we will continue to enforce our trademark, we are taking this one-time action because we believe in the work of SparkFun supporting the Maker and education communities. This is important to us. We have been supporters of the Maker community for years through the donation of over half a million dollars worth of tools and employee time to organizations like First Robotics.

Original Story: A dark gray and yellow design trademark has landed a shipment of 2,000 digital multimeters (DMMs) in trouble with US Customs and Border Protection. In a blog post today, SparkFun, an online retailer that sells electronics and offers DIY classes, wrote that it must destroy a recent $30,000 shipment from its manufacturer because US authorities say the multimeters look too much like those sold by Fluke Corporation.

Although SparkFun has been selling the $15 multimeters for six years, the company received a notice from Customs on March 7. The notice said that the most recent shipment was excluded from entry into the US according to “US International Trade Commission Exclusion Order 337-TA-588.”

It seems that Fluke's 2003 trademark for a dark gray multimeter with yellow borders was the deciding factor for Customs. And although SparkFun contends that their yellow is a different yellow from Fluke's, US authorities want the multimeters sent back to China or destroyed.

For its part, SparkFun says it will have to destroy the shipment, “because the import taxes in China are so steep (yay free trade) that bringing them back into the country to have them modified would be more expensive than paying for the return shipping and taxes. Between bad and worse, we have to have them destroyed. Sorry Earth.” According to SparkFun, Customs says that having the multimeters destroyed will cost $150 an hour, but it is unknown how long the destruction will take.

SparkFun also decried its lack of options in its blog post: “Our multimeters are actually kind of orange, not Fluke yellow. The document from the Department of Homeland Security is matter of fact. Where is the opportunity for recourse? What is the appeals process? Because of a $150 per day warehousing fee, we are forced to decide quickly with limited legal guidance and mounting penalty costs.”

Still, the company says it has no hard feeling toward Fluke. SparkFun said it hoped Fluke might give SparkFun a 60-day temporary license. “There’s probably not enough time (the DMMs will be destroyed in a few days), but perhaps there’s a chance. We’d be happy to donate them to the cause of your choice,” SparkFun wrote.

Update: Here's a full-color image of a representative Fluke meter: