Infringement Rights

[BrownPigs]

Hey this isnt the same issue but thought you guys might find this interesting.

PRESS RELEASE

April 14, 2010

For Immediate Release:

Contact: Ken Huddleston

Huddleston Deluxe, Inc.

Huddleston Deluxe Awarded Key Patent on SwimBait

Las Vegas, NV - April 14, 2010 - Huddleston Deluxe, the leading innovator and provider of swimbait fishing lures, today announced that it has been awarded "Fish Lure with Vortex Tail" as U.S. Patent Number 7,627,979, issued December 2, 2009. This patent issued to Huddleston Deluxe, Inc. by the United States Patent and Trademark Office covers the key characteristics required to manufacture a swimbait having a weighted insert and vortex tail design. The patented features enable several important benefits such as:

Life-like swimming action during slow or fast retrieves;

A vortex tail to move water in a certain and enticing manner; and

Balanced fishing lure feature for stable movement through a body of water.

Huddleston Deluxe is pleased that the USPTO has issued this patent and believes that its patent will provide protection for the swimbait products of Huddleston Deluxe.

"A U.S. patent entitles its owner to prevent anyone else from making, using, importing, offering to sell, or selling the invention described in the patent claims in the U.S," said Richard T. Ogawa, Patent Counsel for Huddleston Deluxe. "Enforcement of the U.S. Patent may be against manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of any infringing swimbait products."

Huddleston Deluxe has commenced a dialog with retailers and vendors about this patent.

"We hope to help bring some order to an industry that has been plagued with a certain amount of ignorance with respect to intellectual property rights" said Ken Huddleston, founder of Huddleston Deluxe and inventor of the patent. "I believe that the U.S. Patent system works and hope to help the real innovators in the industry protect its products."

To view the U.S. Patent, Click Here

Please feel free to forward this email to anyone.

Thank You,

Huddleston Deluxe, Inc.

It will be interesting to see what happens with companies like Baitsmith using the same tail on their baits

[Vodkaman]

Re- Huddleston's patent, what rubbish. It is basically a paddletail only the shape of the fish tail. There is nothing new here and in my opinion, the patent should never have been granted. This is plagiarism at its worst. Taking an accepted idea and patenting it with a slightly different shape.

I bet you could fight the patent, using the argument that the original patent got the vortices diagram wrong. Just goes to show how much work Kenny put into this idea, he doesn't even understand how the darn thing works.

Dave

[rr316]

Re- Huddleston's patent, what rubbish. It is basically a paddletail only the shape of the fish tail. There is nothing new here and in my opinion, the patent should never have been granted. This is plagiarism at its worst. Taking an accepted idea and patenting it with a slightly different shape.

I bet you could fight the patent, using the argument that the original patent got the vortices diagram wrong. Just goes to show how much work Kenny put into this idea, he doesn't even understand how the darn thing works.

Dave

Ken Huddleston is an originator, he designed that tail and used it on all his baits, at one point and time swimbait makers had respect for one another and they each used a different tail design so they weren't ripping each other off. Now their is countless companies ripping off these guys designs that took years to come up with so they can make some quick cash on the swimbait craze. So yes IMHO he should have been granted the patent, along time ago. Maybe look some things up before you comment

[Vodkaman]

Just about everything claimed in that patent is already out there, the paddle tail, the insert, the sliding line tie. Ken may well be an innovator, but I don't see the innovation here.

Dave

[philB]

Just about everything claimed in that patent is already out there, the paddle tail, the insert, the sliding line tie. Ken may well be an innovator, but I don't see the innovation here.

Dave

Dave is right Anyone can re_invent the wheel or bloodknot.

[djs]

Wedgetail lures sued huddleston for infringement on the "220" patent which wedgetail had before huddleston patented his design. wedgetail backed out during the hearings so who was really the first with the tail design? this patent stuff will get ulgy.

[Vodkaman]

The Huddleston/Wedgetail case just endorses what we at TU have already established, that patent law is a very expensive minefield, with no guarantees of success, whether defending or challenging a patent with a justifiable case.

Further to post No56 by DJS, here is a link to a report on the case: http://www.sughrue.c...ail.aspx?id=731 were Wedgetail sued Huddleston for infringement and for some reason, Huddleston prevailed. Here is a link to the Wedgetail patent: http://www.freepaten...om/6857220.html If you are a member (free) of patentsonline, you can click on the PDF for a full read of the patent.

I find it very scary that Huddleston prevailed, as the Wedgetail 220 patent is very comprehensive in its tail design. Of course, we do not know the details and the reasoning why the Wedgetail litigation failed, but it seems to me to be more about the quality of the lawyers than of the patent itself. I was also a bit disturbed that costs were not automatically awarded to the ‘winner’, but that only in exceptional circumstances are costs of litigation awarded.

But comparing Huddlestons recently granted patent: http://www.freepaten...om/7627979.html with the 220 patent, I still fail to see the innovation, in fact all I see is infringement of the Wedgetail 220 patent. Compare the laughable figure 6 of the Huddleston 979 patent with figure 21 of the Wedgetail 220 patent. The designs are identical. I say laughable because of the vortices depicted in the figure 6 diagram which are completely wrong.

Again, I find no innovation here and my only hope to gain a modicum of faith in the US patent system, is that Wedgetail hire some better lawyers and get back in there and win one for the true innovators, because if this one cannot be won, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Dave