Smart Parts Patent Will Destroy Paintball! - Read!

[WickedAirSportz]

Smart Parts broadended their patent, and it was revised in January. The patent is very broad. The patent covers ANY paintball marker that has an on/off switch. This means Spyders with electronic triggers, Intimidators, Angels, Matrices, Bushmasters, and anything else with a battery will be in violation of Smart Parts' patent.

On Friday, a judge approved Smart Parts' request to proceed with their lawsuit for patent infringements. On September 3rd, a trial will begin. This is moving very quickly.

As a patent consultant myself, and can not understand how the patent can be granted, as it will impede technology, which is one of the things that a patent can never do.

Smart Parts is rumored to want a million dollar signing fee, and $75 per unit sold for a royalty fee.

I would recommend contacting Smart Parts and expressing your concern.

[Darkling]

im lost....

Ok, I'm really lost here (I guess I've been playing stock class for too long). How does Smart Parts have the right to do this?

[PsychoBaller]

Cough..... screw SmartParts.... cough....

~da "never liked them anyways" baller

[magman007]

Jim, apparently you are worried about this as well, I appreciate your concern and letting us know. You know the power of the AO army, and i think combined with others concerns expressed to SP and the eventual boycott of sp, wel cna convince them to give it the hell up.



SP has money, and if they were to sue AGD and tie them up, that could mean some big financial troubles.

the funny thing is, AGD has the first ever Electronic marker, again, they never patented it, but they could show previous art

[JT2002]

how is it possible to have a patent for an on/off switch? thats like me saying, "im gonna go get a patent for all eating utensils that have four prongs with which to poke your food. and then sure every company that has ever made a fork, or a spork for that matter"

[MarkM]

Crazy and there we all thought that the "people" at Smart Parts were in it for the long haul. Now looks like they are trying to be the Microsoft of paintball...another company makes a better product than you so you buy the company and suppress the output from it...in this case not buying the company but making the companys go bust and in so doing become Fords "Any colour as long as its black" type of thing. I remember when all this patent stuff was flying around before that there were other well older patents in place that aren't Smart Parts registered and even under the broad descriptions of the current Smart Parts claim they if brought to bear would make the holders of those patents able to sue Smart Parts.

[yeahthatsme]

is it everything with an on/off switch or everything with a battery? cus if its everything with an on/off switch then matrices, xmags, and some others will be fine cus they use push buttons and not switches..and i doubt SP could sue companies just becuase other people used batteries in their stuff

[yeahthatsme]

and people, lets not jump all over this yet, it could just be a mis-understanding, letsw not go and make fools of ourselves and slander smart parts without further proof...

[chizle97]

Wow this makes the Yellow pin look alot better. Also I think Im going the Bushy way instead of the Imp. actualy probably not but that still makes me mad. thats like putting a patent on a the doorknob and charging $75 a piece to use them.

[Animal Mother]

SmartParts is a small company when you compare them to other companies (not paintball) and this is sucide. Why? because we can boycott SmartParts and they will fall. Even if it does get changed it shows what a scum ball company they are for even trying. Yeah.. I'm gonna pass on that Shocker '03.

I'll be placing my order with The Angel Guy next week. :)

Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!

[ramennoodles]

oh bah they need slandering, anyway, it would still be considered a switch begause it is "5; a device formaking, breaking, or changing the connections in an electrical circuit" as defined by websters dictionary. this would include a button.

[WarBUCKs]

Well, this seems kind of odd. Any paintball marker? I guess the work around could be a button rather than a switch or how about a remote control IR device.

I am sure if this is going to happen, Tom and the friendlies at AGD have gotten word of this. Anything with a battery may be pushing it and they will probaby just waste their money. Too bad for them.

This reminds me of Metallica suing for the E and F chords cuz it is their trademark.

Blasphemy!!!!!

[FreakBaller12]

so are you sayign i should buy this upgrades off the market
or
they will still be available just that company gets sued for it and i should boycott smart parts?
thus including ebalde cocker and ebolt for m98?

[Evil Bob]

Face it, they're getting old, they can't really compete on the field with the younger generation of players, they're losing business in the market place to superior competitive products, this is merely the sign of the times.

Usually this type of mindless litigation is the first sign that things are going south for a company, when they pull out the crazy BS patents and go on a quest to hurt as many as they can and pad their earnings.

That patent claim is so broad and silly that I can't believe that the actually found a judge stupid enough to go along with it. Its right up there with the guy who tried to sue all the console game manufacturers for his stupid wide open patent on console design.

Just another reason (not that I don't have enough already) for me to never buy an SP product again.

As a patent consultant, Jim, do you have any favors owed you by people high in the legal food chain that you could call upon to kill this nonsense?

-Evil Bob

[Mossman]

Originally posted by WarBUCKs

This reminds me of Metallica suing for the E and F chords cuz it is their trademark.

Blasphemy!!!!!

That was a joke....hopefully this is too.
I think smart parts is one of the worst companies I've run accross, in any business.