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Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Steve Buchanan (---.36.102.166.ip.alltel.net)
Date: July 19, 2005 03:27PM

The last rod I bought , and probably the last rod I'll ever buy, now that I can make my own, was a Kistler. The one thing I really love about it is the hook keeper. I am a plastic worm fisherman and that design really works for me. I was fooling around with a heavy-duty paper clip and a pair of needle-nose pliers one day and in a few mins. I was holding one just like it. Would making these and putting them on my rods be an infringement of any patent laws?

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Spencer Phipps (---.hsd1.wa.comcast.net)
Date: July 19, 2005 03:55PM

Kistler wasn't the first to use them. Others make them from stainless on their spinner wire forming tools.

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Anonymous User (Moderator)
Date: July 19, 2005 04:14PM

You'd have to determine whether or not there is any current patent in place on that design. It may be that it's not a patented product.
...........

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Lou Reyna (---.hr.hr.cox.net)
Date: July 19, 2005 04:23PM

If it is a patented item you won't run into any problems making them for yourself, its when you try to sell them and make a profit that they'll come after you.

Lou

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Drew Kasel (---.binc.net)
Date: July 19, 2005 04:27PM

If the rod itself doesn't have any patent numbers on it, I wouldn't worry about it. If it does, look 'em up at the patent office's Web site and see if any relate to the hook keeper (which I would find extremely doubtful).


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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Art Parramoure (---.252.148.177.Dial1.Chicago1.Level3.net)
Date: July 19, 2005 05:34PM

For what it is worth, I have been told that you can make anything that is patented for your own use. As long as it is for your own use and not sold to someone else.

Tight lines,,,,,,,,,,

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Mike Barkley (---.nap.wideopenwest.com)
Date: July 19, 2005 05:58PM

For your own use or not, it technically is patent infringement. If someone designs and patents a product, it belongs to them and no one has the right to reproduce it. The same goes for copyrights. You can't take my copy of Rodmaker and copy an article for your own use without Tom's written permission, nor can you download or copy a copyrighted song for personal use.
.
Mike

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Mike McGuire (---.snvacaid.dynamic.covad.net)
Date: July 20, 2005 12:07AM

This is true enough, but it is well to keep in mind the idea of the basic bargain with society of patents. In return for telling the world how to make the item patented, you get exclusive rights to it for a _limited_ period of time. After that time anyone can make and sell it. As a practical matter, no one is going to go after you, if you make a one-off copy of a small item like a hook keeper for your own use. It seems a reasonable assumption that such a thing was not patented in the first place. It costs at least several thousand dollars to apply for a patent, which may not be granted for various reasons such as prior art. At that point you have to sell quite a few of these special hookkeepers before you even start to make money on them, whether or not you got the patent. At this point you will be wholesaling them to retailers who will need to make a profit on selling them in competition with other hookkeepers. This won't help the price you will be getting. In the mean time someone may come up with an even better idea, and being aware of this situation, not bother to patent it.

Mike

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Mike Barkley (---.nap.wideopenwest.com)
Date: July 20, 2005 12:24AM

Mike,

I agree with you that no one is likely to get in trouble. My only point was that patent and copywrite laws apply to all uses, including "personal" use.

Mike

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: dick laxton (---.houston.res.rr.com)
Date: July 20, 2005 04:50AM

About 25 years ago I was manufacturing an item that could have possibly been a patent infringement. I was told by a patent attorney that patent protection was 7 years(I believe that was the number) then it was anybodys item to do with as they saw fit. He also said if you were not making thousands of dollars off an item it would probably never reach the courts, He sited an example of big money law suits re: Ford Motor Company against General Motors where with vinue change and out of court talks it may take 15 to 20 years to reach the courts etc. His advice to me was make your item ,make your money and if it ever came to blows then stop making it. I never heard a word from anyone. I say go for it

dick

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Steve Buchanan (---.ellijay.com)
Date: July 20, 2005 10:03AM

Thanks for the input guys....I like em.....I can make em.....so I'm gonna.....

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: Anonymous User (206.73.5.---)
Date: July 20, 2005 02:07PM

Steve,

Patent protection here in the US is 17 years. If the first time you saw it was over 17 years ago, then you are free to make and sell it whether it was patented in the first place or now. From your wording, it sounds like the rods you liked were old. Were they before 1988? The holders of the patent have 17 years from the date of filing (maybe the date of granting) to produce under protection.

Also, if an item is revealed to the public before the application is filed then a filing is null and void. So if I were to come up with some great new reel seat and put it on a customer's rod first, I couldn't then go seek a patent for it.

Thanks,
Rick

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Re: Patent Infringement??
Posted by: bill boettcher (---.250.36.81.Dial1.Weehawken1.Level3.net)
Date: July 20, 2005 11:16PM

What about using the spring steel wire that is used for making spinner blade lures for them

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