>John, when you say the courts frequently face this problem, do you know of >cases brought to enforce boat design rights? Or are you speaking more >generally of patent and other rights? I would be interested to read cases >related to boat designs. I can't tell you where to find them since I design boats and am not a lawyer. Nevertheless, among naval architects fear of frivolous cases lurks and insurance companies charge accordingly. >And building on earlier design ideas was exactly what happened with the >Nadgee, which as Matt noted, has different handling from the Mariner Max, >and is a different boat, developed by its maker, and in no way a simple copy >of the Max. Perhaps. >Maybe in the USA, but in Australia, the example you give is quite beyond any likely outcome in a court. I don't live or work in Australia. >There are so many contributing factors to a kayak >death or accident that it would be a brave plaintiff's lawyer who tried this >one. My lawyer tells me the risks are real and that one cannot ignore them. Any legal action costs money and takes up time. In a country where lawyers can take cases on a contingency basis this presents very real problems. >Boat designers should not lose sleep worrying about such far fetched >possibilities. I will trust my lawyer on this unless you are willing to do my work pro bono in which case I may re-consider. :) >Courts are not a >pushover for any claim to get through, and appeals courts fix up rubbish. You have a great deal of faith in the judicial system. Donald Marshall, Guy Paul Morin, Thomas Sophonow and others (Candian examples) might beg to differ. Cheers John Winters *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Whoa! Careful with the tar. You're getting it all over everyone. >You have a great deal of faith in the judicial system. Donald Marshall, Guy >Paul Morin, Thomas Sophonow and others (Candian examples) might beg to >differ. The examples you site were the victims of malicious prosecutors and not the entire court system. By in large I put more faith in the Canadian Courts where your case will be heard by a legally trained judge ( at least for now) and not someone who won a popularity contest. Everyone hates the courts except when they have a wrong they want righted. The wrongs done to Marshall, Morin and Sophonow where all righted by superior courts. Think about what our friend said, "Courts are not a pushover for any claim to get through, and appeals courts fix up rubbish." Here's food for thought. On any given day here in Victoria you can open up the want ads and find a particular brand and model kayak for sale. There's always one on the used boat market - sometimes there's so many it makes you wonder why. Could it be a poor hull design? And why is it that some kayak companies have upwards of 20 or more boats in their stable. Could it be that once the plugs are made they just keep cranking out the product even though it's not a very good design. The boats off these old plugs finance the R&D of the new design. Actually it's the poor devils that bought the slugs that are financing the new designs. If I was in the market for a new boat I'd look at companies that had been around a long time and only have a few boats in the line up. I'm not affiliated with anyone. regards Gordin Warner *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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