Tige agrees to pay Malibu for use of delayed convergence

[05hammerhead]

Trim tabs - Not new, yes, it was used for surfing, but only the mechanically list the boat vs weighting it. 

Delayed Convergence - New.  Id patent the crap out of it and make sure that I sued anyone that looked anything even close to it to protect it.  (Sidenote - not suing someone for using your patent is negligence and will nullify your patent)

As for MC copying it.  They knew what they were doing was wrong.  Im sure their patent lawyers told them they were going to get burned.  They should have found a different way to create delayed convergence that wouldnt infringe.  Anyone who has worked in R&D knows how expensive it is.  A company cant be in business to let all other companies capitalize on their ideas after a while youll run out of $$.

[bamabonners]

speaking of patenting a tower....  To me, patenting delayed convergence is like patenting an elevated tow point.  Patent how your company achieves delayed convergence, yes.  Patent the general idea, no.  Like another said, it would be like a patent on downforce.  Nautique definitely copied it and Moomba copied it.  The tabs on the bottom should not be considered the same, IMO of course.  I think this is a case of the larger fish trying to bully the competition because they have more money right now...  I guess it all goes back to the patent itself.  Why would a patent be granted on such a broad topic?

[carguy79ta]

back in the day...way before all of our times ..Henry Ford had a patent battle to build the model T.  there were a group of car manuf. that held the patent on the concept of a motorized vehicle on 4 wheels.  they would not liscence to HF. eventually the courts said that the idea could not be patented.  or something. the rest is history. saw it on 'The Men Who Built America' series.  awesome series btw.

[bamaboy]

I think we might be getting ahead of ourselves here.  Malibu hasn't actually won anything in relation to their patent on delayed convergence.  They settled with Nautique but NSS is pretty similar to SG.  It is a horizontally deploying surf system.  Maybe the writing was on the wall?  IDK.

 

Tige is a smaller company and probably just settled the lawsuit with Bu to avoid the hassle.  As SD said, maybe they got an early adopter Bro deal.  

 

The true test of whether Bu's patent holds up will be the MC suit.  Bu's surf system is based on horizontally deploying delayed convergence and MC's is vertically deploying.  Bu's patent on delayed convergence hasn't really been tested in court yet.  My guess is that MC will take it to the bitter end but we shall see.  If Bu wins though and patents a force, I am totally gonna patent my own force.

[vanamp]

If you are a tire maker and you come up a new tires that has awesome grip you can patent the formula of the rubber, the process of making the tire but can you patent grip?  

[DarkSide]

I can't believe they aren't going after the suck gate people!

 

 

[Pnwrider]

2 hours ago, DarkSide said:

I can't believe they aren't going after the suck gate people!

 

I can, not enough money there to make it worth it. 

[05hammerhead]

15 hours ago, DarkSide said:

I can't believe they aren't going after the suck gate people!

 

 

I believe the patent says something about it being actuated. 

[Bawshogg]

So if that's the case one would believe this would open up Wakemakers and the GSA guys also right?

[skurfer]

1 hour ago, Bawshogg said:

So if that's the case one would believe this would open up Wakemakers and the GSA guys also right?

I'm guessing they're still small peanuts. Going after the big guys first. MC, Tige, etc. If they keep winning, they will start going after the smaller guys. I would hedge my $$ on them losing against MC. My cousin is a patent attorney in Silicon Valley, Apple, Samsung, etc. He says there isn't any rhyme or reason to it, it's rolling the dice every time. We'll see..

[Bawshogg]

I guess you would think so.... but how many boats a year does Tige do really? I'd almost bet it wouldn't be hard to sell more Wavecontrol systems than Tige's ...... I don't think they have sold a Tige in Portland in about 5 years. 

[IXFE]

2 hours ago, Bawshogg said:

I guess you would think so.... but how many boats a year does Tige do really? I'd almost bet it wouldn't be hard to sell more Wavecontrol systems than Tige's ...... I don't think they have sold a Tige in Portland in about 5 years. 

I don't think we even have a dealer anymore. I heard River City dropped the line. Probably cuz of what you said ^^^

[Bawshogg]

They are back down at Hillyer's from what I understand.  They obviously did better when they had them, but still had a hard time up in the city. 

[bamaboy]

16 hours ago, Bawshogg said:

I guess you would think so.... but how many boats a year does Tige do really? I'd almost bet it wouldn't be hard to sell more Wavecontrol systems than Tige's ...... I don't think they have sold a Tige in Portland in about 5 years. 

I agree.  Plus, wavecontrol (GSA) is licensing units to MB last I heard.  

That is, of course, unless MB decides to shift gears and go with its 4th surf system in 36 months.  

[05hammerhead]

Im guessing once they set precedence with a big boy with a big check book, the rest of the cards will just fall where they will.

[motoring]

1 hour ago, bamaboy said:

I agree.  Plus, wavecontrol (GSA) is licensing units to MB last I heard.  

That is, of course, unless MB decides to shift gears and go with its 4th surf system in 36 months.  

And If you look at the wording of MB's patent, it's quite broad. I take it as GSA, and Mastercraft, and anyone with tabs could technically be in violation of THEIR patent

[motoring]

also, is there any way to check if the Malibu vs. mastercraft suit is still even going on? I haven't heard anything about it since the original bit of press releases.

[bamaboy]

12 minutes ago, motoring said:

also, is there any way to check if the Malibu vs. mastercraft suit is still even going on? I haven't heard anything about it since the original bit of press releases.

Its still going.  Someone posted an update on TT recently.  But I'm too lazy to look for it.

[DarkSide]

I think i remember a May 2017 court schedule.  It will be interesting to see the outcome of this.  Like someone said earlier, win, lose doesnt matter boats arent getting any cheaper.  

[TallRedRider]

On 11/18/2016 at 7:31 AM, 05hammerhead said:

Trim tabs - Not new, yes, it was used for surfing, but only the mechanically list the boat vs weighting it. 

Delayed Convergence - New.  Id patent the crap out of it and make sure that I sued anyone that looked anything even close to it to protect it.  (Sidenote - not suing someone for using your patent is negligence and will nullify your patent)

As for MC copying it.  They knew what they were doing was wrong.  Im sure their patent lawyers told them they were going to get burned.  They should have found a different way to create delayed convergence that wouldnt infringe.  Anyone who has worked in R&D knows how expensive it is.  A company cant be in business to let all other companies capitalize on their ideas after a while youll run out of $$.

Malibu did patent the crap out of anything that creates delayed convergence, so MC could not 'find another way that wouldn't infringe'.   Right now, there appears to not be any better way to create a surf wave. 

[malibudog]

would be interesting to know if any of the smaller aftermarket suppliers have received infringement letters with cease and desist demands. 

[05hammerhead]

3 hours ago, malibudog said:

would be interesting to know if any of the smaller aftermarket suppliers have received infringement letters with cease and desist demands. 

I promise they have.  If they didnt then they could easily claim neglect and go on selling their stuff.

[minnmarker]

48 minutes ago, 05hammerhead said:

I promise they have.  If they didnt then they could easily claim neglect and go on selling their stuff.

WakeMakers is still advertising WaveControl on their web site.  I assume they would have taken it down, but perhaps they are paying a royalty already??  May be why the price is so high?

https://www.wakemakers.com/wavecontrol

[bamaboy]

3 hours ago, 05hammerhead said:

I promise they have.  If they didnt then they could easily claim neglect and go on selling their stuff.

You have some inside info or a hunch?

[skurfer]

Pretty sure Gosurf assist has their own patent. MC has patents on Gen 2..