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jmik26

Patented Lures? Does and Don't?

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I agree with you dams but I just want to know for own personal knowledge. I can't understand it so its very frustrating.

Hard to beleive that this is where the world is going. If this is the case we won't be able to make anything ourselves. We will be forced to purchase everything thats not produced in USA. That to me equals problems.....

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I understand completely, but I'm not gonna be forced to buy anything :) I understand that companies need protection, but more than likely if a guy is capable of making a certain bait, and is doing it, he wasn't going to buy one anyway, so chasing those guys down would be a waste of time and resources!

I think the problem comes in when that guy making them for personal use decides to trade a few for something that some other guys makes, then it's out in the open. I rarely fish with something that I didn't make, or didn't come from one of the folks on this site!

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I think the "big" companys have no intention of burning any small guys making baits for themselves and their buddies.

They are just making a lot of noise to scare folks away from making instead of buying. On their part it doesn't cost a great deal of money to start rumors and the possible return on that investment can be pretty good.

It's sort of like the big kid in the playground making a lot of threatning gestures to scare all the other kids so he can control his part of the playground.

I really wouldn't worry too much about it as long as you don't promote your product too much and you don't get too big.

Just my thoughts.

www.novalures.com

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any commercially made mold (read 'Do-it' or 'hilts', etc...) is fine for making any bait you want... if there was a problem with the mold the 'big boys' would not allow the companies to produce them... there is a disclaimer with the "horse head" mold that specifically states 'for personal use only'.

When it comes to soft plastics... while shape/name is one thing (copyright), the plastic formula is what the companies will more likely try to protect with a patent.

IOW, if you produce a "Zoom Brushhog" and call it a "Zoom BrushHog" and sell it, then you risk alot of issue... but if you produce a "bob's babyHog" that looks alot like it, well, they have a harder time fighting it as well.

Based on those two assumptions (I'm no lawyer), I think the overwhelming majority of 'garage shops' are safe from any concern.

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I remember before the board went down there was a lenghty post on the legal issues of copying a bait that was patented, in the new BP catalog, there are several close imitations of the beaver and then this.

http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=90805&hvarSearchValue2=249&hvarSearchValue3=824&hvarSearchValue4=&hvarTarget=search&AFID=&sourceid=&cmCat=SEARCHRESULTS

How is this not an issue?

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If you make, use, or sell a device that is covered by any one claim of an issued patent, you are infringing the patent. In practical matters, the patent holder will never know if you build one for yourself, and really is not concerned about a personal knock off of a $2 item. Now if you build a device for personal use that sells for $500,000, the patent owner would be concerned about your use of that device. He wants to sell you one. Its impossible to protect a patent from 1000 infringers, and really is not on anyones radar.

They mainly want to prevent someone from going into business or competing with their market, and are not usually going to be concerned about one-off knockoffs.

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