I think you stereotyped me as being from Asia. I am an American expat living in Asia and America (I commute), just like those countless of kiwis and Aussies that do the same. The flag is selected based on where you registered, I registered while I was on a business trip.
Back on topic, I don't advocate that anyone should do support imitators, however I'm equally not too sure if I really think that I'm too fond of the look amd feel patents such as the one click purchase button that amazon managed to get a patent on. Or apples pursuit of Samsung using foundational patents for look and feel.
I am in 100% defense of protecting utility patents, heck I myself hold thirty or so utility patents for system and apparatus. Not so sure if I think that it was right for Cadbury to be granted the exclusive use of the color purple for food packaging through their granted patent in the eu.
Would i purchase a kit car made to look like a Lamborghini? Never. Would I purchase this chassi? Nope, I wouldn't either. Do I think others have the right to purchase this as long as they don't use it to pretend it to be the original? Yes I do.
Hold on a minute! Jeff Rowland made Pass clones in the past?! Proof, please! (This is how internet rumors get started....)
One more thing. I read up on the superformance vs. Shelby industries. Turns out that it never got to a court verdict as the parties settled by superformance licensing rights. To me this sounds like Shelby was doing the big company thing and suing followed by deposition upon deposition in order to force the other party to either go bankrupt or settle prior to getting a verdict. That's what big companies do to smaller companies. I myself have had this happen to me when someone from a very large company came to me just as my company broke 100m in revenue and told me that I should license their patents or I would find myself in court for the next five years and even if they lost it would still cost me more money than if I would just go along and license their ip. And they hit me with a design patent, which in essence said that to make a thick line one could draw two thin lines close together to get a thick line -hence they had a patent on any machine that could draw a thick line. Drove me nuts that I would have to pay these guys for that since, in their own words, it's cheaper to pay than to fight and even if this one would be invalidated by the court they had many more in their portfolio.
This is what has shaped my opinion that only absolute copies pretending to be the original As well as utility patents plus trademarks should be protected or we will be abused by the trolls to no end.
I have personally fought and invalidated six patent trolls in court. IBM makes a billion dollars annually in licensing their portfolio. The new war in ip is in software look and feel and services which all base their claim as broadly as possible to ensure maximum applicability.
Anyway, my opinion.
This is what has shaped my opinion that only absolute copies pretending to be the original As well as utility patents plus trademarks should be protected or we will be abused by the trolls to no end.
I have personally fought and invalidated six patent trolls in court. IBM makes a billion dollars annually in licensing their portfolio. The new war in ip is in software look and feel and services which all base their claim as broadly as possible to ensure maximum applicability.
Anyway, my opinion.
yup
it's simple - take my Pippi Langstrumpf avatar , and try to sell it .
I'll pi$$ on you and all your customers
I thought that was pippi.
I thought it was pippi longstockings? Or is that a translation?
And just cause it will drive me nuts if I don't know.... Why did you use her?
May I chime in, very respectfuly?
Ip, or not.
Patened, or not.
Stolen, or not.
Taking food out of nelsons fam mouth, or not.( Or passlabs/firstwatts employes for that matter)
This is how I see it.
We have a guy who over and over shares his time, livelyhood, and somtimes parts, with all of us.
In order to do this.... He has apparently taken some guff from the share holders/partners for doing so.
I would consider this going out on a limb for me.
every time someone dose that for me I try to do the same.
It is a issue of loyalty.
Now IMHO disscusing the legality of it is interesting, but I hope all involved would show the amount of "honest family values" that I have come to enjoy on this site, and steer clear.
Nelson has said he won't loose sleep over it. I can say if I bought one I would. I hope I'm not the only one.
Thank you for your time.
Ip, or not.
Patened, or not.
Stolen, or not.
Taking food out of nelsons fam mouth, or not.( Or passlabs/firstwatts employes for that matter)
This is how I see it.
We have a guy who over and over shares his time, livelyhood, and somtimes parts, with all of us.
In order to do this.... He has apparently taken some guff from the share holders/partners for doing so.
I would consider this going out on a limb for me.
every time someone dose that for me I try to do the same.
It is a issue of loyalty.
Now IMHO disscusing the legality of it is interesting, but I hope all involved would show the amount of "honest family values" that I have come to enjoy on this site, and steer clear.
Nelson has said he won't loose sleep over it. I can say if I bought one I would. I hope I'm not the only one.
Thank you for your time.
WoW! My sincere apologies to Mr Rowland!!!! My mistake about the Pass clone thing - it was Tim Rawson that I was thinking of and I saw Rowland and both of my feeble brain cells misfired!!! My very humble apologies for this misstatement!!
As to his taking credit for symmetrically balanced amps - mmmmm - I thought that NP had the patent on that one.....
I saw these cases on CAM the other day and started writing an email to Pass, but figured NP would almost certainly know about it already...
The *beautiful* industrial design work that goes into these things is NOT cheap and IMO adds considerable value to the end product.
As a bass player, this kind of reminds me of Rickenbacker clones, which CEO John Hall has fought tirelessly and as a result has largely succeeded at keeping these things off the market--even 30+ years after most of these s**tty clones were made, it's not exactly easy to sell one. Exactly as it should be.
While obviously it is the beauty of the engineering within that makes these pieces of equipment so fantastic, I'd like to say that I've admired and appreciated the excellent care and execution of strong and timeless industrial design which has gone into the products which NP has been involved with over the years.
Anecdotally, just before coming here I was cruising AgoN (as is my wont, natch...) and was admiring the S500 for sale -- the only thing on there that dates it cosmetically is the goofy "cursive" "Hand Crafted" motif above the Threshold logo. Excellent taste.
Bests,
--jeff
The *beautiful* industrial design work that goes into these things is NOT cheap and IMO adds considerable value to the end product.
As a bass player, this kind of reminds me of Rickenbacker clones, which CEO John Hall has fought tirelessly and as a result has largely succeeded at keeping these things off the market--even 30+ years after most of these s**tty clones were made, it's not exactly easy to sell one. Exactly as it should be.
While obviously it is the beauty of the engineering within that makes these pieces of equipment so fantastic, I'd like to say that I've admired and appreciated the excellent care and execution of strong and timeless industrial design which has gone into the products which NP has been involved with over the years.
Anecdotally, just before coming here I was cruising AgoN (as is my wont, natch...) and was admiring the S500 for sale -- the only thing on there that dates it cosmetically is the goofy "cursive" "Hand Crafted" motif above the Threshold logo. Excellent taste.
Bests,
--jeff
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yes i did, agreed patenting colours, genetic material etc is taking things too far, not sure on the apple vs samsung thing, when you are a company that repeatedly has its ideas ripped off you can understand a little. I just think that supplying these people with free legal argument ideas is not so great
Funny.
If I summarize the logic of what you just said:
"copying somebody else's intellectual property can't be a theft, I do it all the time and teach my students to do so !"
Following your logic, the guy who clones Nelson Pass's design could have said
"I like this face plate, ...ho and I like those heatsinks, and I like the color of that anodising, and I like that chamfer, I like these curves, I like these screws , and the very place they are, hoo I like everything! It's not stealing Nelson Pass's design or visual identity .... it's just that I like it so much I can't think of another way to build a casing !"
Don't get me wrong, I also do like to store ideas for later, and like others have said, I do think that the patenting thing has gone way too far.
I'm not talking about morality or anything... and I'm not talking about ideas which are nobody's property (aka in the public domain) like the wheel, the ball bearing, a basic shape, etc .....
But if the law recognizes somebody's "intellectual property" I still think you cannot argue it's theft if you use it without someone's express agreement....
Fred
You just nailed the issue.
"if the law......"
So far we are yet to see the verdict that says so.
To legally protect a design world wide, is rather hard, and very few differences are needed, to make the design protection void.
If that is the case here, I have no idea about, but to assume it is protected, and that the other manufacturer is in the wrong, is sure questionable.
I deal with the patent system all the time due to my work, and it is not quite as black and white as you might expect.
Magura
NO YOU ARE NOT ONLY ONE.
Me 2
There is one thing about patents that I think is worth a mention
Supose there was a patent on the circle or someting really realy simple.
Same cina man could copy it and when time came to take him to court the Cina man governament steps in and say tha you have no case as the Cina man circle is different.
They do that as a mater of course and there is no point try to argue with them.
I ma not saiing that all Cina mans are like that I am shure that a few would agree with sakellogg.
Pippilotta Viktualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump ......... but for friends shorted ZM
so - you can see that longstockings is translation of Swedish origin
Pippi Longstocking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
why ?
why not ......... because Buda is everywhere , especially in Pippi's smile
Fifi Brindacier and that is translation to Frenchie most possibly the only place where name became Fifi wonder why.
PS could you do me big favor and stop posting pictures of nice cars bit sore point at present.
Pippilotta Viktualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump ......... but for friends shorted ZM
so - you can see that longstockings is translation of Swedish origin
Pippi Longstocking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
why ?
why not ......... because Buda is everywhere , especially in Pippi's smile
Well look at that!
I had no idea she was swedish.
Ok, thanks you have saved my sainity..... What's left of it.
Wow, I did not know unedumacated people joined forums like this one.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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Yeah, I got married once too.
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