Smart Parts Patent Will Destroy Paintball! - Read!

[joshuagore]

Many people are talking about the "rights" SP has under our patent laws. I do not really feel that this is a matter of rights.

I look at this purely from the standpoint of ethics. OJ didnt spend time in Jail for the murder of his ex wife, but later he was found responsible for it.

I think SP weather its legal a right or not shouldn't persue enforcing the owning of the rights for basically any and all electronic paintball guns.

Like others have said it is about money and not about the sport.

As far as im concerned the process and method they used to receive the patents they did were dishonest in the first place. Weather covered bye law or not that doesn't mean its right.

I guess I didn't originally want to add to this post because there are plenty of educated people posting with opinions similar to mine, but to think there are people who feel that if Smart Parts wins legally then they should be able to do what there doing is beyond me.

Basically it is a mockery of our legal system.

Money wins and innovation gets crushed.

Support anti Smart Parts talk not because of legal reasons but because of ethical reasons.

Josh Gore

[Kraemer]

SP is done for...most all players are against them now, so even if they do drop the suit, they will go under. THey should count their loses and drop from PB forever

[Automaggin2]

Originally posted by Surreal



the thing that really is just annoying to see, most of the people who post in these threads are 14 year old kids who don't know jack crap about anything and they are just bobbing their head like a mime and repeating what these 'powerful' people are saying. most of them are just followers, get some personality and make your own decisions.

I agree. What the hell is with these ridiculous swasticas. take them out of your sig, its stupid and IMO, a racial picture.

[chesterrc]

Originally posted by Kraemer
SP is done for...most all players are against them now, so even if they do drop the suit, they will go under. THey should count their loses and drop from PB forever

Nope. Smart Parts will still be able to sell its goods to the people. Many people who buy smart parts buy them in pro shops locally, and pro shops will do everything they can to stay in buiseness, even if it means selling smart parts goods.

There are millions of paintballers ou there, and i am willing to bet that not even 1/3 would never buy anything from smart parts in the future.

And while there are many paintballers browsing online forums and finding out about this, there are many more who go to the feilds every other weekend or once a month who know nothing about it and never will, and they will still buy smart parts.

[Prairie]

Official SP response, sort of:

http://www.midatlanticpb.com/sp/dir/sp.mp3

1:25 pm, tuesday july 22nd

[WickedAirSportz]

Interesting... obviously Smart Parts must be getting bombarded with emails and phone calls, if they already have a canned statement about a boycott.

[Prairie]

Either that or they know nothing about it and there is a furious scurry in the office right now :P

[Duke Henry]

Originally posted by Kraemer
SP is done for...most all players are against them now, so even if they do drop the suit, they will go under. THey should count their loses and drop from PB forever

Don't count on it. Anyone remember Salm? He is already back and involved in paintball again.

Oh how we forgive, or forget.

[Prairie]

I didn't think the salm thing was a big deal when it happened though

[Ice]

Is this the on/off switch to turn the marker on or off. Or is this the switch that the trigger hits that (in one way or another) causes the marker to fire?

Either way, isn't there a way around it? I mean if it's the on/off switch to turn the gun on or off. Then couldn't you just use a button instead? And if it's the switch to cause the marker to fire, there has to be another way. Like an Eye, or magnets?

[WickedAirSportz]

"..and electrical on/off switch.."

This would mean anything that could change the state of power (toggle switch, push button, etc.)

[DK1]

Originally posted by shartley

This is partially true, and I agree with much of it. However, the part I don?t agree with is that the general public has ANY say as to what is correct in a patent or not. If you don?t like the patent system, then argue that. But as it stands we have it? and folks should not bash others for USING it.

No, but that is the discussion. Should this take place. Is it ethical, is it "right." Just because something is legal doesn't make it right to me.

If SP has a legal right to the patent and its enforcement, that will be determined in COURT, not on an online forum. And THAT is were the issue of polarization by emotion comes into play. And guess what? If the COURTS find they have a right to the technology or its use as it pertains to paintball, SP has EVERY right to expect all other companies to pay them for it. We would expect nothing less for ANY company, or person.

Making a judgment based on information isn't emotional polarization, it's making a decision based on the things presented to you. From the information presented, it appears that Smart Parts has knowingly left things off patents to GET them into court. So, it SHOULDN'T be decided by a court case, it should have already been decided by a "no" from the application process. And I wouldn't expect less from Smart Parts or anyone else... I'd expect better. Just because you have to make money doesn't mean you have to screw people, even if you can get away with it.

So the issue is about whether they have a legal right or not. The DO have a legal right to pursue the issue however.

Do I hope they are entitled to what they claim they are? I have mixed feelings about that. However, I do think they should be afforded the same rights we would want for ourselves to protect what we think are OUR rights to things. If they honestly know they don?t deserve the rights to this technology, then yes, that can be considered ?sleazy?? but we have seen other companies in other industries do MUCH worse

Sure, but I've already covered the part about their legal right to pursue. We're simply stating that we would perfer that to NOT happen here. It is sleazy. It's cheap, and it's unfair. Again, legally you might be liable for shooting someone who broke into your home, that doesn't make it a good thing. Just because we say we think this is bad, and will do whatever we can as consumers and those who play this sport, doesn't make us controlled by emotions. I'm not whipped into a frenzy. I've felt this way about smart parts for years now. It's not like this just all happened in the past month. If anything, it's ethical and intellectual, two things that may very well constantly conflict with my emotions.

As for when someone patents an idea or product that is not theirs, and what do you do? you prove them wrong. This is not uncommon, and copyrights, patents, trademarks, and other such things are disputed on a regular basis, and often it is shown that they were granted to the WRONG person(s). Just because you file something does not mean you HAVE the rights to it, the same as if d.you DON?T file it does not mean you DON?T have the rights to it. The system is not perfect, and filing is not the final determining factor? otherwise no one would have to go to court to uphold their claims. A judge would simply see that it was filed for and that would be that??? but it isn?t.

Exactly, that's what we are trying to help with. Judges can make decisions in patent cases on a multitude of grounds, one of which happens to be logical progession. We, as concerned consumers see that this patent not only interferes with the technological progression of our sport, it is a blatant infringement upon the public knowledge in the industry. Perhaps we might dig something up or have some information that the defendants don't yet have access to, nor would if this we're as well publicized.


I truly see your points, I simply can't agree that it's emotional rifraff. From what I've seen, SP has little to no reason whatsoever to think that they deserve the rights to these patents. Actually, I see that they have done things underhandedly for the specific intent of getting these rights without having to go through the proper procedures. Does that make them a worse than everyone else. Maybe. I'm not concerned with everyone else right now. I'm concerned with SP and this lawsuit.

I'm not against patents at all. I'm not against the system that grants and enforces them. Without them, there would be little incentive for people to come up with things like the RT valve and the Uber-loader. However, I'm quite against companies who intentionally abuse the system, and do so knowing that it will detriment the people they sell their products to.

Maybe electro's won't dissapear entirely, but they will dissapear to me. I don't have the jack to spring for a new angel or xmag. Tack on another $150 to everything that's out their right now in licensing fees, and there's a much larger group that gets added to the list of stuff I can't afford. And why? Not because of everyone else's greed, because of Smart Part's. It's a direct link. Manufacturing processes aside, competition drives down prices as much as anything else.

DK1

ball return :)

[Skoad]

In Japan (i think it was) gambling for money is illegal.

They have "video games" in arcades kinda like a slot machines where you win these little marbles (kinda like a token in an arcade or a ticket). After your done playing you take all your marbles up to the prize counter where they have all sorts of stuffed animals, radios, etc like a normal arcade but they also have these little decorative coins.

People trade in their marbles for the coins and then just go out and accross the street from the "arcade" theres a little booth that pays cash for the coins.

Pretty neat way to get around the gambling law eh? There's probably ways to get around the patents but it may take some money to get them started.

[Nick O time]

this wouldn't solve anything accept for getting around the on off of the marker, but here is my idea for that:
You could have an automatic sut off of like 30 minutes and then have an over ride button if you were playing scenarios or big games and stuff. Then you could hit the over ride button again to make the gun go back to the 30 second shut off. again that might not work, but that is just an idea and probably doesn't solve any problems.

*Warning: Sig too big* -Miscue

[toolfan62]

everyone should ust stop talking about it cause we arent gonna know anything until it happens.unless tom decides he wants to tell us something only top people like him know about