If you ban the questionsble vendor... then what are you suggesting a boycottby forum members?
Second, anything you put up on the net without legal protections in place ... was just thrown up for grabs to the first person that gets the patent. That said, a 20 million dollar company has much deeper pockets than Joe blow ... good luck fighting them.
More and more slingshots are going to be sold in the coming years. Could be more forums piping up too.
The patent process can take years.
I want you to seriously consider what I’m about to say.
For the past 50-60 years U. S. Companies have been using China to make their products cheaper. But China has literally stolen every product and invention. EVERY product and invention they got paid to make. That means all the billions of research dollars and time involved to develope the product were wasted. the Chinese stole them for free and made huge profits. This was all due to American company’s practicing corporate greed. Forgetting about employees and only worrying about their bottom line.
Today the person that can make the product first and get it out there fastest has the biggest profit potential until the rest of the world catches up to them with their stolen copy of it.
It’s a cruel world.
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What the hell is going on? Someone please message me with the details, I think I've almost got this decoded? I was worried my trailer towing thread was going to be deleted! I thought I logged into the Twilight Zone when I finally remembered my password. Then I began having flashbacks to my algebra trig class from high school ....X,Y.....oh my!
This thread reminded me of the other forum, where I actually was banned for posting about my invention......they finally let me back on.... This has been an interesting read, thanks for the heads-up @jorgebri60. I've always been worried about a company stealing our Wycked Hitch design, so that's why I went with a Provisional Patent. The process took 2 years (give or take) to get the Utility Patent #9963005, which was issued this month. Cost was under $10,000 total. Not too bad considering I started out as a "hobby business." Actually, if you ask my wife, I'm still a hobby business .
I was fortunate enough to find a Patent Agent who was willing to help me out. His name is Ben, he's the owner of Williams Intellectual Property. Williams Intellectual Property The guy is a savant! Ben tells me that there are funds available to small businesses to fight patent infringement, as well as firms that will handle claims pro bono or as a percentage if they win, which is reassuring.
As a small family businessman, I've had an amazing amount of help and support over the past 3 years. Our beta testor's are all phenomenal people, and very loyal. They are a big part of our Wycked Hitch family, we definitely would not be where we are without their support! The team at Magic Metals (who laser cut our components) took my original drawings and prototype'd them into Solid Works. They even gave me the drawings for the patent over a handshake, asking me to keep my business with them for at least 2 years......Our powder coater, Penny @ Finishline, treats us like family also. She is glad to help with small custom pieces or will knock out 20 hitches at a time. It's really humbling that big businesses are willing to help out the small guys these days!
My philosophy is to treat every customer like family. It's not always easy, but I think we've done well. I think our customers definitely have our back. I've had pictures sent to me from events showing some custom hitches that had us wondering if we were being knocked-off? As far as I know, no one has stolen the idea with the goal of making money off of it. I've had 2 welders ask me if I'd sell them the components for a hitch, which I gladly did once they guaranteed me they would not steel the design and sell them to all their SS buddies on this forum....... .
We had an opportunity to have the hitch manufactured and packaged in China, but just didn't make sense, our product liability insurance would have tripled! Actually, I'm waiting for the $20 million company to offer to license the patent out so we can go Wycked crazy on the new 2019 Chevy/GMC's......(Thought about Dodges and Fords, but we want to give the hitch a real test!