General

[A.C. Basbas]

Originally Posted by LONGBALL

patent or no patent..... do your part and educate the new players and support a boycott on SP products.

Thanks you!

[glnnhoffman]

so, what impact does that have on paintball as a whole?

[Grendel]

Originally Posted by stevedavidson

...I am looking into forming a 501(c) corp who's purpose will be to serve as a watchdog over patent applications relating to paintball.

There are several organizations that do this for other fields of invention and I am reaching out to them.

If anyone wishes to donate to the cause, let me know...

I'm willing to contribute time, effort and money in a well organized effort to this intent. I already am talking a Law School Student friend of mine to do a case study on this subject. He needs to do one for a corportate law class anyway and was talking about trying to find something interesting.

I understand protecting your intellectual efforts but trying to scoop up others' is morally repugnant in my view. I've not been someone to jump on the hate SP bandwagon but enough is enough.

[Tallen702]

Steve, PM'ed you. You have a man on the ground in Alexandria just a few blocks from the Patent office if you need me.

[RealtorTommy]

I posted back awhile ago that I have some inventions/designs and I contacted many companies...smartparts was the rudest exchange of conversations I have ever had...quote "they have their own design team and do not want any outside help"end quote.....is the lightest response
I took the sp barrels that I had on my markers and sold them..I will not(knowingly) have a smartparts product....
I am presently trying to work with Identity Crisis Paintball..two guys just starting out with the B-5....my fingers are crossed....
Some posts here say they don't get what is going on...simple greed....

[stevedavidson]

Originally Posted by Grendel

I'm willing to contribute time, effort and money in a well organized effort to this intent. I already am talking a Law School Student friend of mine to do a case study on this subject. He needs to do one for a corportate law class anyway and was talking about trying to find something interesting.

I understand protecting your intellectual efforts but trying to scoop up others' is morally repugnant in my view. I've not been someone to jump on the hate SP bandwagon but enough is enough.

I am in the process of talking with attorneys and similar organizations.

the primary thing it will do is look for illegitimate patents and then file for re-examination of them in light of "newly uncovered" prior art.

since the filing fee for this alone starts at about $2500, (and then you need attorneys) - its going to need to raise serious money.

[BigMatt-MadCustoms]

And the pic is date stamped as well....

BigMatt<---------Has no Smart Parts product whatsoever in his shop



http://www.mad-customs.com/45phantom.jpg

[Madmox]

Just my $.02 but when i read the patent what stuck out to me is the repeated reference to a soleniod. In my mind this means that they may not be trying to patent only a gas through feed but rather be designing a soleniod driven regulator so as to do away with the valve as we know it since the airflow and charecteristics as we know them will no longer hinge on a spring driven valve,merely on the opening and closing of the soleniod acting as a gate. This potentially has the impact of further integrating electronics into the marker and redesigning a marker that is both smaller and has fewer moving parts. Now i in no way support smart parts as i too feel that they are nothing but dirtbags but that is just how i read the patent. And hell, if that isn't how the patent is written maybe i am onto the next new something...

Madmox

[Cockerpunk]

my thread i started on PBN anouncing this has been deleted twice now. i can;t find anything in the rules that says it can't be posted ...

[stevedavidson]

cyber,

welcome to the world of being "out-of-step" with the self-presumed arbiters of what is and what is not paintball...

couple of things:

anything and everything having to do with patents in the united states (EXCEPT for sensible explanations of why something is so) can be obtained by visiting the uspto.gov.

according to their regulations, prior art is limited to "publications".

they interpret this as meaning "previously published patents" or literal publications - such as a magazine, technical journal, etc.

you can't just send them a prototype.

as far as reading the claims or the matter covered in the application in question: the first claim is what you really need to concentrate on.

Basically, the first claim is the broadest description of the device and covers as much ground as can be gotten away with. Since solenoids are not mentioned in the first claim, they don't have to be included in the device in order for it to be covered under the claims.

What you are looking at is:

1. a dinner plate
2. the device of claim one ( a dinner plate) that can be heated in a microwave
3. the device of claim one that can be washed in a dish washer
4. the device of claim TWO (a dinner plate that can be heated in a microwave) that can be washed in a dish washer


now the above is very crude in the specificity of its description, but I'm concerned here with illustrating the nature of and relationships of the claims.

if such were to be granted a patent, the owner of the patent would "own" dinner plates, including dinner plates that can not be heated in the microwave or washed in the dishwasher, as well as plates that can go in the microwave, or in the dishwasher, or both.

Their coverage is the initial design PLUS any of the things described in the following claims.