How can you patent...

[signswi]

Patent office is incredibly overwhelmed they basically approve everything and let the courts sort it out. It's why patent grabs are a major part of company buyouts (for example: it's one of the big reasons Google bought Motorola).

Basically big *** companies go to war with each other by saying "if you go after patent X we'll go after you with patent Z". It's a huge cold war happening within the market at all levels.

Patent office needs massive reform, much better funding and field experts and until those three things happen it'll just keep getting worse.

 

[Fred Weiss]

When we developed our Scrappy™ Friction Feed Adapter in 1988 we hired an attorney to file for any applicable patents. It ended up being 14 different claims. When we finally heard back three years later, 13 of the 14 were rejected and one was accepted. The one was for using a rubber coated roller to move material through a machine ... commonly called a pinch roller.

We were amazed that IBM, Xerox, Roland, Graphtec and others didn't line up to license our technology. :ROFLMAO:

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

I'll be honest. I've used Knifeless Tape...and liked it. But if another company makes a product that works exactly the same but costs WAY less...I'd be an idiot to stick with the more expensive product just because they had it first.
UNLESS the cheaper one is from China, in which case, on principle the amount I'm saving would be lining the pockets of a Country that doesn't have our best interest in mind. (well technically they have our "interest %") I try not to buy China's stuff when I can avoid it.