Keith wrote; > > Do you have the patent number? Is it Canadian only? First of all, I almost can't > imagine Tim putting together a good patent claim. Secondly, the prior art goes back > probably several hundred years. Thanks for the reference on Voyageur. My K-light, > as almost all folding boats, has internal sponsons. I suppose Feathercraft as well > as Klepper and Folbot might be able to direct me to their sponson supplier. > I have not looked into what Tim's patent says but I doubt if it is a supportable patent except in a very narrow way. That is often the way with patents. One has to define them so narrowly that it becomes easy to circumvent them. Also, one has to be willing to go to court to support your claim and that is risky expensive business. Having been through this business myself both as an expert witness in support of a patent (the case was lost - maybe I wasn't expert enough) and also as a patent seeker the costs of a patent just aren't worth it unless one really has a great idea that will make tons of money. My lawyer says most people get patents just for bragging purposes. He calls them vanity patents. I doubt if the sponson concept itself can be patented. As Keith points out, the basic idea is older than Moses. Cheers John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Jan 30 1998 - 05:49:58 PST
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