treebing
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- Detroit, Mi.
I do have it all wrong. The sidewinder came after the big shot and Sherrill does have a patent on the bigshot. sorry for the rumours
Gear Innovation
- Thread starter DanHouse
- Start date
Dan,
Good luck with the marketing - find financial backing and mass produce to keep your costs as low as possible so you have a margin to work with and lessen the likelihood of entry into the market (smaller volume producers will have higher relative costs); that is where you are apt to make some money. Trying to patent, adding in a couple lawyers and everyone involved tends to lose, except the lawyers.
We tried several types of conduits 1975 to 1991, including 1 1/2" black plastic irrigation line, a childrens corrugated plastic 'horn' with the bell cut off, an oversized hula-hoop, and even Flexible EMT similar to what you used, but the quality was not there and they didn't last. Friends at a shop called the Leather Tree even made us up a couple sleeves from thick leather. When the commercial leather ones became available we lost interest in experimenting.
We also were using wrist rockets with lead fishing weights and hunting bows and spinning reels to send lines into trees, and our best idea was to train squirrels to run up and through a good crotch and back down with the throw line tied to a little harness, but the training time and cost in peanuts were projected to be exorbitant. Now with the advent of super-well-controlled quadcopters you could probably fly a line up to set your TIP.
Now I use a Sidewinder-like device and do not think it was a wise decision for the patent office to allow a patent for the Big Shot as it is essentially a "slingshot", with a lot of prior art, as I think is the legal term.
Best of luck to all you're creating.
Good luck with the marketing - find financial backing and mass produce to keep your costs as low as possible so you have a margin to work with and lessen the likelihood of entry into the market (smaller volume producers will have higher relative costs); that is where you are apt to make some money. Trying to patent, adding in a couple lawyers and everyone involved tends to lose, except the lawyers.
We tried several types of conduits 1975 to 1991, including 1 1/2" black plastic irrigation line, a childrens corrugated plastic 'horn' with the bell cut off, an oversized hula-hoop, and even Flexible EMT similar to what you used, but the quality was not there and they didn't last. Friends at a shop called the Leather Tree even made us up a couple sleeves from thick leather. When the commercial leather ones became available we lost interest in experimenting.
We also were using wrist rockets with lead fishing weights and hunting bows and spinning reels to send lines into trees, and our best idea was to train squirrels to run up and through a good crotch and back down with the throw line tied to a little harness, but the training time and cost in peanuts were projected to be exorbitant. Now with the advent of super-well-controlled quadcopters you could probably fly a line up to set your TIP.
Now I use a Sidewinder-like device and do not think it was a wise decision for the patent office to allow a patent for the Big Shot as it is essentially a "slingshot", with a lot of prior art, as I think is the legal term.
Best of luck to all you're creating.
Bixler
Participating member
- Location
- Nevada City, CA
Good luck Dan, I'm sure it will pan out just fine. Great ideas I'm looking forward to putting them to use. Also, very reasonably priced and thanks for the link.
macswan
Been here a while
- Location
- Champlain Valley, VT
Dan I purchased your rope guide from treestuff, on a hunch that others were copy cats. I'm glad I chose wisely. Works great, keeps my rope pretty. Only gotten it stuck once, but it was a removal I was returning to the next day.
Richard Mumford-yoyoman
Been here a while
- Location
- Atlanta GA
I am wondering how this has effected some of the innovators here.
The new law, signed by President Obama Sept. 16, offers nothing to benefit small businesses, startups, individual inventors or university innovators....
"Each of the changes described above acts to weaken our patent system to the disadvantage of small-business innovators....
The new law creates a catch-22 for startups: An inventor can’t start discussions with an investor before filing a patent application, but usually does not have the money to file a patent application before landing an investor. The old law permitted the discussions that allowed entrepreneurs and investors to find each other; the new law suppresses them.
The old law created an even playing field that treated small companies and large companies alike. The new statute gives a huge preference to large companies, by strengthening the advantages to companies that can do all of their financing, research and development, testing, manufacturing and marketing in-house. In contrast, the AIA takes away the legal provisions that allowed easy consultation with third parties and cross-company collaboration."
The new law, signed by President Obama Sept. 16, offers nothing to benefit small businesses, startups, individual inventors or university innovators....
"Each of the changes described above acts to weaken our patent system to the disadvantage of small-business innovators....
The new law creates a catch-22 for startups: An inventor can’t start discussions with an investor before filing a patent application, but usually does not have the money to file a patent application before landing an investor. The old law permitted the discussions that allowed entrepreneurs and investors to find each other; the new law suppresses them.
The old law created an even playing field that treated small companies and large companies alike. The new statute gives a huge preference to large companies, by strengthening the advantages to companies that can do all of their financing, research and development, testing, manufacturing and marketing in-house. In contrast, the AIA takes away the legal provisions that allowed easy consultation with third parties and cross-company collaboration."
