Patent one can only wonder about it´s been granted

[Calvin]

Hi,

US-patent-offices never fail to surprise us with worthless or ´revived´ patents.
By accident I stumbled across this "Patent" from 2012. 🙄
It deals with damping the base resonance with mesh, a mechanical ´excursion limiter´ (felt betwen stator and membrane) a coating utilizing nano material and a cardiod woofer.
All soundingb familiar to You???
Well, no wonder, as apart from maybe the nano material coating there´s nothing new ... in fact the little treaty looks like a collection of external intellectual properties and long since known techniques.
Maybe they even collected from DIY-Audio-Threads like this one?
I find this praxis quite annoying ... how about You?

jauu
Calvin

 

[KSTR]

I stopped caring about US patents long time ago... US patents have nothing to do with the original intents and purposes of a patent of the kind we know in Germany/Europe.

 

[tyu]

Thanks for the Pantent.....to bad about you being ..quite annoyed!
By anything to do with ESL speakers ...good luck with that...

 

[bolserst]

... in fact the little treaty looks like a collection of external intellectual properties and long since known techniques.

I agree, nothing new I could see.
There was a white paper published around the same time talking about their “patent pending technologies”.
PIO Sound

But, this is only a patent Application. It has not been issued or granted….and hopefully never will be.
Perhaps the purpose is to be able to use the words “patent pending” in brochures?
Then again, Final was eventually granted a Patent for their inverted ESL which was a well-known method as far back as the 1930’s.
https://www.google.com/patents/US7054456

Other recent ESL related patent Applications of well-known methods include the Sanders PCB stators and Sony AMT.
https://www.google.com/patents/US20050094833
https://www.google.com/patents/US20140247955

 

[phase]

Patents are somehat of a joke it seems.
Good for marketing and chest beating maybe...

 

[golfnut]

One of the reasons for patents is to establish a defendable position. So should they be sued for breach of someone else's patent, for example, they can claim a point of difference. Another is to give the impression of new and improved technology for marketing purposes. I recall seeing a discussion of golf ball technology - and one particular ball was built on 76 different patents! This happens in Europe and US - patents have not been about inventions for some time.

 

[bentoronto]

Some say it is more important to devote your efforts to getting your new product out in the market early.

For sure, the history of motional feedback disclosures - an active thread elsewhere - shows all kinds of trivial "new inventions" patented for bad reasons.

I once read that piano actions (key mechanisms) were (at one time) a big patent category.

Ben

 

[SY]

I recall seeing a discussion of golf ball technology - and one particular ball was built on 76 different patents!

Coincidentally, I spent much of last week at the leading golf ball company, where I heard much the same thing. Some ridiculous amount (like 75%) of product development budget is spent on patent landscape analysis and legal fees. The patent system here would be easy to reform, but that will never happen as long as there's lawyers who need the revenue stream.

 

[scott wurcer]

Coincidentally, I spent much of last week at the leading golf ball company, where I heard much the same thing. Some ridiculous amount (like 75%) of product development budget is spent on patent landscape analysis and legal fees. The patent system here would be easy to reform, but that will never happen as long as there's lawyers who need the revenue stream.

They didn't share their margins by any chance.🙄 You could have fooled me, I've sawed a few in half to find nothing but a solid core of the stuff you love.

 

[SY]

High quality balls will be more complex- there can be four or more layers, the materials and they way they interact are apparently critical, and there's a range of materials and processing choices, all of which have significant effects on ball performance. And there's even extensive research into dimple patterns.

It's a bit of a waste that I have access to all of the deep secrets and research on this and I have something less than zero interest in the game. I was offered custom balls and clubs by one manufacturer, which I had to pass on because of my company's ethical rules, but didn't upset me much- they would just gather dust.

 

[Max Headroom]

Steam Roller vs Golf Balls
Run the vibrators and it might be a different story.

Dan.

 

[scott wurcer]

And there's even extensive research into dimple patterns.

I found one of those balls with the illegal dimple pattern, it was bizarre in flight.

 

[bentoronto]

Coincidentally, I spent much of last week at the leading golf ball company...

Are you free to tell us how much they might pay to hire a person of your expertise to get a better "kkkknock" sound when the ball was hit? Or did they want you to design a speaker to fit in their ball?

Ben

 

[SY]

I am expensive, and even more expensive if they want me to be in MA.😀

Seriously, they actually DO care about what the ball sounds like when hit. That's not my end of things (I'm concerned with the manufacturing process and how the layers interface), but it's always interesting to see really in-depth research like that on what one would normally think of as a quotidian object.