More Smart Parts Patent Applications

[p8ntbal4me]

AFAIK AGD doesnt have any patents... tom kaye refused to do it for the good of the sport.

Ironic, that... the gardner brothers decided to screw everyone over..

Dont take this as a slander toward Tom or anyone.

But at this point,.. where we all know what SP (Gardner) is doing,.... you would think that people like AGD (Tom), WGP (Bud,.. when he was there), PPS (Glenn and his boy), etc..... would say,.. "Alright,.. enough is enough SP. Either stop ammending your patents,... or we will show prior art for all patents not filed, file counter suite,... and bury you for every dime you have to spend."

I wish the "old guys" would get together and stop this madness that it Smart Parts.

I had a convo with an "Old Timer" from Billys All American Days and even before that.

Somewhere in a basement from long ago,.. there is a patent for the original muzzle break that Gardner used on his first barrels.... claiming him to be the inventor of it all.

How funny would that be if he had to pay back all the funds he got started with back in the day?

Gardner sucks,.... now Im seriously thinking about getting rid of my Shockers.

Its gotta end some time for them,.......

[Mechanic79]

Smart Parts is a cancer. We need to be the cure.

[nathanjones008]

I bet sp is losing tons of money cause peeps are tired of their madness.

[mostpeople]

Somebody with the resources and the know how needs to set up a website that shows, and documents all the things SP does to hurt the industry, as a central place for them to get information etc...

imho

[Freebird]

im not going to lie, i love my all American barrel.

But i do despise smart parts, a whole lot. I work at a Paintball field in upstate NY. The owner, my boss has been playing since 1988. Hes rolled with bud orr at the world cup and has stories of 400+ player stock class games. He Says the industry has changed from a "built by players for players" to an industry of "built by the lowest bidder for the highest dollar". And i believe it. I am only 18 years old but ive been playing since i was 9. In my experiances ive watched the industry change in the past 9 years. Ive seen the shadow of SP grow larger and larger since i can remember. True paintballers play paintball because its fun. They play for the sport. Not the money, or the fame because its very seldom that a normal paintball player is recognized and made famous. Like tom, he held his patents back for the good of the sport. Im guessing his intention was for crazy minded modders out ther could take his ideas and personalize them and tweak them. I think smart parts needs to chill out on its patent BS. OK they deserve the patent for the freak. But really when you start crossing into the area they have been. Youve gone to far. Like i said before my boss, field owner hornets nest paintball est. 1992 will not carry smart parts. The only thing he sells from smart parts is the freak kits. NOT even the spare tips or backs. He believes that smart parts will take over and destroy this industry. Small unique home based marker companies will be put out of business because of these patents.

I agree with everyone
somthing needs to be done, and people need to be educated.
dont even think about going through a magazine though. smart parts has every magazine out there by the balls. flame smart parts in your mag, ok they wont purchase the 9 full page adds they do.


Still we have to get the word out there.
Ill help doing whatever i can
ill hand paint anti smart parts T shirts if i have to

OHH wait? dosent smart parts have a T shirt patent already?

ohh nvm thats next week.

[garbage_anus]

I'm waiting for the day when Smart Parts files a patent for pump guns or something silly and ultra general.

There will be a day when SP has gone too far, the day when they push the wrong persons buttons. Microsoft has been in the courts for the last dozen years, and Smart Parts is basically trying to follow the same basic idea of trying to gain a monopoly on the market. It will backfire in the long run and the company will fade out.

I hope never to see the day when we refer to paintball as "Smartball", or be forced to pray to the Gardner brothers before a game starts.

I'm up for the days of paying $2000 again for a nice marker if it means not supporting Smart Parts.

[Papa_Smurf]

I'm waiting for the day when Smart Parts files a patent for pump guns or something silly and ultra general.

Welcome to that day. They do the ultra general thing.

[devildog]

maybe someone else should have gotten the patent first. kudos to sp for making a buck

[siloseven]

OK, I don't speak Govenment or Laywer... can someone translate what tose claims/patants say in a nut shell?

[ThePixelGuru]

maybe someone else should have gotten the patent first. kudos to sp for making a buck

Imagine if TK patented HPA. Or if Tippmann patented the pin valve. They didn't, because they wanted to see the sport do well. And I don't mean just buyers not having to pay more because of the added royalties - I mean companies losing out because buyers get sick of all this and leave the sport because it ceases to be fun. That doesn't just affect players, it affects the entire industry. If you kill the industry, you kill your market. Don't believe me? Check out the industry's numbers. Player growth has not only stagnated, it's going backwards. SP is killing the sport, and no one's winning.

[SnatchForFree]

the best way any one of us can do anything is to not buy from SP and tell all your friends not to buy SP...and keep the word spreading not to buy from them. Its especially important to educate newer players on this....

Ive never owned an SP product and never will.

That's kinda my view on this whole thing. When I post my arguments on PBN. I hope that some of the newer players are lurking and seeing how SP isn't this great company. The patent system really is flawed.

[devildog]

you guys are blowing this way past what it is. sp never said the other companies cant build these products. they just have to pay a few bucks to smartparts to do it. it happens in buisness all the time. why is it wrong for paintball, but right for everything else?

[Aggravated Assault]

I kinda agree to a point...but sp appears (to me) to like to take other peoples ideas and/or prior designs.. and patent it as their own.

Maybe one could argue good business, but bad ethics?

Thats enough for me to choose to spend my money somewhere else.

[ThePixelGuru]

you guys are blowing this way past what it is. sp never said the other companies cant build these products. they just have to pay a few bucks to smartparts to do it. it happens in buisness all the time. why is it wrong for paintball, but right for everything else?

Because the royalties they charge let them inflate everyone else's prices and undercut them with SP markers. The cost of these royalties drives consumers away from other companies and to SP, or just plain forces companies under by slashing their profit. Plus, SP makes money every time someone buys a marker they had nothing to do with. If your marker has batteries, odds are SP got a cut. You can't tell me batteries were suddenly a patent-worthy idea the minute they hit the paintball field.

Also allow me at this point to mention that those who have access to the numbers are far from implying that it's a "few bucks." Quite the opposite. And this isn't a paintball-only issue. Monopolistic business practices are not a good thing for consumers or for an industry. The issue here is that SP doesn't make money by putting out a better product, they make money by litigating their way to the top of the heap. No one who really cares about the sport wants to see that.

People bring up the "it's happening in other industries, too" thing all the time. Yes, it is. None of us said it was a good thing, or that paintball happens to be the most important issue here. Still, this is a paintball forum. If it was some other kind of forum, maybe we'd be discussing patent issues related to that industry, instead. That logic is like walking into a church and going, "gee, there are a lot of people who believe in God around here."

[devildog]

so youre going to tell me that marker prices now are more expensive than back in say 01 or 02? please.....

markers are now faster, more reliable, smaller, consistent, and CHEAPER than ever. that is up for argument of course, but the cheaper part holds true.