How long do patents last?

[daniel1948]

Copying Is Not Theft - Official Version - YouTube

People who create intellectual (as opposed to physical) property, would disagree with you. Authors, for example, make their living from the royalties of the sale of their books. If you copy a book, you are depriving the author of his livelihood.

However, in the case of a discontinued product, fabricating a replacement part which is unavailable from the manufacturer is probably not going to bother anyone. If you make a few for friends, a patent owner (if it was still in effect) probably wouldn't bother with you. If you went into mass production it might be another matter (if the patent was still in effect).

Note that there are several kinds of patent-infringement lawsuits: There are lawsuits when a company feels that its business is being cut into. There are lawsuits brought by people hoping to make money from the lawsuit, even though they are not actually in business to produce anything. (There's actually a whole industry devoted to obtaining patents and then looking for people to sue, with no intention of ever making anything with the patent.) And there are lawsuits files solely to harass someone who is disliked for a reason unrelated to any actual infringement.

In this case, I think you have nothing to worry about, for reasons the other posters have mentioned.

 

[Bob DBF]

Now if you were copying some of the new crap they are putting out now I could see your a$$ in a bind, but copying and improving on discontinued gear which their retailers have been saying "get the new improved, that old stuff will kill you" will only get you snickers from the uninformed.

As I see it, You are making replacement parts for a discontinued item. If you improve the design get your own patent.

I'll contribute to the defence if necessary.

Vintage Gear Forever!!!



Bob
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I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[Akimbo]

OK, thanks guys I'm not going to worry about it.

I will make one for myself off the mold I already have, then I think I will design my own with two cam slots and the ability to use a wing on it. It won't be hard to do and composite is light so it would be good for me use for travel.
If I could find carbon fiber I would use that but it is expensive and hard to find these days.

TAP has it in Santa Rosa... not cheap but they have it.

 

[captain]

I say three words, "small block Chevy". Dozens of aftermarket manufactures make parts to whole engines that are copies. Unless they would attempt to put the GM logo on them without permission from GM then GM doesn't attempt to stop them.
Some are licensed reproductions with the GM logo, most aren't. A registered trademark and a patent are two different things, registered trademarks don't expire and companies protect them.

 

[herman]

On a slightly differnet tack, if you make a few more and don't mind, this would be an interesting "how I did it" thread. Photos and short descriptions of the process. I am always interested in how others do this sort of thing.

 

[Tigerman]

People who create intellectual (as opposed to physical) property, would disagree with you. Authors, for example, make their living from the royalties of the sale of their books. If you copy a book, you are depriving the author of his livelihood.

No, you only deprive anyone of anything if you would have bought it if you didnt download it!
This is the major thing that i.e. record companies completely fail to understand. If I download a song it does NOT mean that I otherwise would have bought it, nor that they lost a million usd because I did, which they seem to think. At best they lost the ammount THAT ONE SONG is worth and at worst I wouldnt even have listened to it or their band at all..

 

[SwimJim]

Why copy something that was a piece of junk to start with that would let you down in a pinch? Now Dacor made the same pack, but it was made of steel or aluminum. Now you had something that could take some abuse! It would not crack whether it fell off the tail gate or if a '58 Buick backed over it. I'm just sayin'.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Why copy something that was a piece of junk to start with that would let you down in a pinch? Now Dacor made the same pack, but it was made of steel or aluminum. Now you had something that could take some abuse! It would not crack whether it fell off the tail gate or if a '58 Buick backed over it. I'm just sayin'.

Well actually they are pretty damned comfortable. I agree that the plastic they used was crap and a crappy cheap way of producing something.
I have already produced something like that in stainless, it's called the Freedom Plate, remember? I couldn't sell enough of them to buy a pack of gum. Making a compound shape such as a moulded pack from flat stock stainless is a sh_tload of work, I have first hand experience with metal shavings in my skin from deburring that won't corrode out like mild steel, and permanent ringing ears from die grinders and hammering even with hearing protection.
BTW, those die slammed aluminum and stainless packs from back then were piece of sh_t compared to a 10 GA plate made now days.
The old ones were lucky to be made out of 18 or 20 GA sheet stock.

Moulding a pack from composite allows for some very interesting compound shapes and some great strength.
There are some really high tech resins available that weren't around years ago like certain epoxies and marine vinyl ester, which is three times stronger than basic polyester resin. I'm in the marine business amongst other things so I know about these chemicals.
There's also West System epoxy and I also have some really high tech stuff but very sensitive and ratios need to be exact it's called Applied Poleramics - extremely strong stuff. A properly hand layed up part could handle thousands of pounds of stress.

Akimbo: Tap doesn't have carbon like they used to. If you've been in there lately it's not the 10 oz cloth they used to have.
The military gets it all and also I found out that new Boeing 787 super liner is all carbon fiber skin so that's where it's all going. Shlubs like us that want a few yards to make a stupid pack pack get the middle finger.

 

[Akimbo]

Well actually they are pretty damned comfortable. I agree that the plastic they used was crap and a crappy cheap way of producing something….

I have to agree, they were comfortable. I my case I used the Voit Snug Pack on doubles and singles and the US Divers later. The metal bands were a PITA for packing and the webbing could have pulled through the bottom slots a little easier. I suppose some people could use a crotch strap slot, but I never did. I never used the Dacor. The Sportways metal pack was not nearly as comfortable because the shoulder straps didn’t come off center thus required breast straps to keep them from sliding off your shoulder. Also there were separate shoulder length adjustments.

Akimbo: Tap doesn't have carbon like they used to....

Bummer. Do you think that Carbon Fiber is functionally necessary or just cool? I had an old no-name ABS pack crack in the mid-60s so I put a layer of fiberglass matt over both sides. That baby was bullet proof. I can see a market reluctance to accept something that “looks/feels” too thin, regardless of how stout it is.

I agree; you could do some interesting things in fiber. Storage for an SMB and reel comes to mind. Built-in carrying handles like the blow-molded packs maybe.

 

[Rich Keller]

The patents have long expired, the only thing you should be careful of is trademark infringement.