Jeff, I apologize - I did not realize that was in violation of the forum rule. It won't happen again. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Hi Derek, thank you for your question. All Lemo patents have expired: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEMO
It is not illegal to produce replicas of product unless you actually physically label them as LEMO which is a violation of the trademark. Push-pull connectors are manufactured by many companies as well like Fischer Connectors, ODU connectors and Souriau connectors which a lot of them are "backward-compatible" with LEMO as well.
The only technical difference between the KeyWolf connectors and LEMO connectors are the material of the insulator. LEMO insulators are made of a plastic material called PEEK and ours are made of a material called PPS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEEK
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly(p-phenylene_sulfide)
Both are highly-engineered material and having the insulator made out of PPS provides the same dielectric voltage and insulation resistance characteristics. The PPS does add about 2% more weight to the overall connector mass. This difference is reflected on our datasheet and part numbering as our part numbers end with CXAD instead of CLAD. X being PPS and L being PEEK.
Other than that, all other materials are the same and the manufacturing processes are the same. Contacts are machined gold-plated contacts, shell is chromed-plated, dimensions are the same as an example.
Please let me know if there are any other questions that I can answer.
Have a great day!