Paintball and Economic Terrorism

[Automagsam]

Lecture By Samuel Langford February 23, 2007

[CKY_Alliance]

ummm, ok..wow..umm hope this isn't meant for anyone who doesnt play paintball to read.

Hard enough to follow for someone who does play paintball, and knows a majoirty of what you are talking about.

[Automagsam]

ummm, ok..wow..umm hope this isn't meant for anyone who doesnt play paintball to read.

Hard enough to follow for someone who does play paintball, and knows a majoirty of what you are talking about.

Yeah I sperated it with spaces now tho since the whole indent thing doesn't work, now it should be fine.

[GT]

First, I think you need a big hug and a case of beer, only if you are of legal age, because it sounds like you need to chill it out big time.

Let me link this with another issue that is going on in a different subject. Back on December 12th 1980 an act was passed called the Bayh-Dole Act. Many people to this day do not know what I speak of when the Bayh-Dole Act is brought up (though some who are up in age rattle their minds as they draw out the memories). The act made it so any research and inventions that was discovered by Universities or private businesses could be patented.

Some of your statements about the act are incorrect and full of unfounded opinions. First, the Act was designed, and works very well, at allowing universities and not-for-profits to patent and tradmark research for federally funded projects. The cool part in all this is that the founding team retains some of the rights as does the university. The universty can then transfer the rights to another party for commercialization. The university then derives monetary compensation for the use of the technology. The best example of this is Gatorade out of the University of Florida. There are some limits on how the funding can be used, however, the university could use the funding to jump start new research, teaching ventaures, or service activites through community outreach or clinical practice.

Before you continue your tirade you might want to consider for a momment how universites acutally work. The vast majority of private and public universities could not survive on state funding or student tuition. The buisness of universities is infinitely more complicated than private industry and the folks who can educate on those practices are far and few bewteen.

Paintball and the buisness of paintball is small potatoes compared to most other industries. I am sure if any "real" company wanted to get into paintball, like oakley or nike, they could in an afternoon, purchase damn near the whole industry. When you consider how many real "players" thier are in the industry, a company would only need to buy a handful of companies.

Besides all this patent stuff with companies that are this small is really a waste of time. The only reason SP and others have not been chalanged is because someone with a bigger pile of cash for legal fees has not stepped up.

[Automagsam]

First, I think you need a big hug and a case of beer, only if you are of legal age, because it sounds like you need to chill it out big time.





Some of your statements about the act are incorrect and full of unfounded opinions. First, the Act was designed, and works very well, at allowing universities and not-for-profits to patent and tradmark research for federally funded projects. The cool part in all this is that the founding team retains some of the rights as does the university. The universty can then transfer the rights to another party for commercialization. The university then derives monetary compensation for the use of the technology. The best example of this is Gatorade out of the University of Florida. There are some limits on how the funding can be used, however, the university could use the funding to jump start new research, teaching ventaures, or service activites through community outreach or clinical practice.

Before you continue your tirade you might want to consider for a momment how universites acutally work. The vast majority of private and public universities could not survive on state funding or student tuition. The buisness of universities is infinitely more complicated than private industry and the folks who can educate on those practices are far and few bewteen.

Paintball and the buisness of paintball is small potatoes compared to most other industries. I am sure if any "real" company wanted to get into paintball, like oakley or nike, they could in an afternoon, purchase damn near the whole industry. When you consider how many real "players" thier are in the industry, a company would only need to buy a handful of companies.

Besides all this patent stuff with companies that are this small is really a waste of time. The only reason SP and others have not been chalanged is because someone with a bigger pile of cash for legal fees has not stepped up.

Yes but im not sure if your aware of this but certain genes are becoming patened, such as one of the diabetes strands, and we are having to pay to study certain diseases. It is not right to put a patent on genes period, this is something that cannot be invented thus it should not be patented, it only hinders developing cures and or solutions.

[latches109]

What you wrote is not economic terrorism.

[Automagsam]

What you wrote is not economic terrorism.

In the sense I used it and described it yes it is.

[Ninjeff]

I thought it was a well written and well done post.

One gold star for you sir.

[Automagsam]

I thought it was a well written and well done post.

One gold star for you sir.

Thanks

[BigEvil]

Good lecture... well thought out. It is indeed very frustrating the way paintball works these day.

Remember the differences in the industry between then and now though. In the days where TK and Bud Orr were gods, paintball was a fledgling new concept. Innovations went unpatented because it was in the best interests of the people that created them. "Make the pie bigger.." as people used to say.

Now, patents are not used for what they are intended.. to protect one's intellectual property. The only thing they are used for is to give one company leverage to extort money out of others in the form of licensing fees.

The patent office is as much at fault over the situation as any paintball company by letting vauge and redundant patents be filed. Simply a case of being undermanned and underfunded i suppose.

[Pacifist_Farmer]

I don't really see that anyone is at fault. THe paintball equipment industry has finally started to mature and it is behaving just like every other industry.

Look at the Apple/Cisco iPhone patent, millions of dollars spent for a simple trademark.

I see the big difference between paintball and other industries is that the number of individuals who actively care what happens in paintball is miniscule, compared to say cellular phones.

If companies couldn't patent things there would be little to no innovation available to the general public (I'll come back to this). The only responsible way for a company to recoup development is by patenting technologies and designs to guarantee an exclusive market share.

Paintball technologies seem to defy the rules which apply to most industries. THe vast developement costs which apply to say cellphones, do not necessarily apply to us. That is why individuals have been successful at innovating and improving with respect to markers. In this respect patents can hurt the paintball industry. But as long as the majority of players are content in purchasing this years model from the large companies this will continue.

THere is no "economic terrorism" in the paintball world, just normal economic movements. While your "lecture" was interesting it seemed like a biased primer for anyone just looking into the situation for the first time. A noble effort.

[shartley]

[Lohman446]

Good lecture... well thought out. It is indeed very frustrating the way paintball works these day.

Remember the differences in the industry between then and now though. In the days where TK and Bud Orr were gods, paintball was a fledgling new concept. Innovations went unpatented because it was in the best interests of the people that created them. "Make the pie bigger.." as people used to say.

Now, patents are not used for what they are intended.. to protect one's intellectual property. The only thing they are used for is to give one company leverage to extort money out of others in the form of licensing fees.

The patent office is as much at fault over the situation as any paintball company by letting vauge and redundant patents be filed. Simply a case of being undermanned and underfunded i suppose.

What is the purpose of a patent that? "Protection" of ones intellectual property rights in reality means protection of the right to profit from ones intellectual property. That could be through direct sales, or marketting agreements with others. Patents are being used for exactly what they were meant to be used for today in paintball. The argument of the validity of those patents is an entirely different argument. Patents are being used for exactly what they were intended to.

[BigEvil]

What is the purpose of a patent that? "Protection" of ones intellectual property rights in reality means protection of the right to profit from ones intellectual property. That could be through direct sales, or marketting agreements with others. Patents are being used for exactly what they were meant to be used for today in paintball. The argument of the validity of those patents is an entirely different argument. Patents are being used for exactly what they were intended to.

Yeah, when you lay it out like that you are right but I guess it all goes back to the validity of the pattents. I know there are many instances in history where patents were not granted to prevent situations like the one in paintball.

[Lohman446]

Yeah, when you lay it out like that you are right but I guess it all goes back to the validity of the pattents. I know there are many instances in history where patents were not granted to prevent situations like the one in paintball.

Not granted when requested? Aside from medicine I don't know of an area where the government ignored patents for the good of... well anything. Not to say there are not exceptions of course. Considering back to when Smith and Wesson obtained the exclusive rights to the patent on bored through cylinders in revolvers (allowing cartridges) it would have been in the goverments best interest to not allow that patent. Yet it was allowed.

I do think SP is taking advantage of the little business aspect still. To an outsider that patent seems horribly broad, and one would think that if a company with the backing to actually fight it fully were to (I'm thinking K2), it would be whittled down. Funny, I bet SP never addresses K2 in an adverserial manner on it.

Paintball just shifted from a "lets make the pie bigger" to a "lets just take more pieces" economy a bit quicker than a lot of people expected, and we are finding we don't actually like having big business involved, at least in part. We have gotten what we wanted out of big business (better tolerances, cheaper equipment, cheaper paint, more promotion). Somehow we never considered there would be negative consequences...