patents and insults

PATENTS

The exclusive right granted by a government to an inventor to manufacture, use, or sell an invention for a certain number of years. (after it has been paid for)

I have 4 patents, sleeping bag (expired), hootch, insulated flotation suit, and pack boots. The three later patents did not go full term.

Getting a patent is a learning experience. The first one for the bag took about 3 years and $4000.00. Once granted the cost continues because the government charges a maintenance fee. You pay up front when you apply and once granted every 2 or 3 years you pay this maintenance fee to maintain the patent. After 20 years from the date of application if I recall the patent expires. I did maintain the sleeping bag patent for the term of the patent.

When it came to the other 3 products I decided not to maintain them because there was not one company in the USA that had any interest in copying me. As a point of fact not one company was interested in copying me making any of these products outside of the USA. So I saved several thousands of dollars.

What I also observed is how limited the knowledge is on the part of the examiners. Patent examiners refer back to prior patents for their knowledge. What they do not know is if the prior patent is really valid. Based upon what they read gives them limited knowledge so they ask questions that in most instances (based on my experience) have very little to do with the purpose and how the patented product is supposed to function.

As one knows I have for 40 years and then some written why materials advertised as being both water proof and vapor permeable made by man cannot exist and therefore do not exist. However, when the gore company applied for their patent it was written I suspect in such a manner that the patent examiner approved it. How long that took is unknown to me and it is otherwise irrelevant. Had the examiner had knowledge of physics the examiner would not have granted the patent because physics teaches us that man cannot make a water proof material that will also have the characteristic of being vapor permeable!

As I explained in my previous article “Thermoregulation” the product that coolcore company sells does not work as advertised. It too is a patented product and here again if the examiner had prior knowledge of materials and how the human body works the patent would not or should not have been granted.

The reality of the situation pertaining to patent examiners is such that the government will hire people who have very limited knowledge if any to examine patent applications and in my opinion grant probably the greater majority of them because it generates revenue for the government.

As I see it there is no regard for the individual consumer who will spend their money on products that are in fact bogus. Each of the products mentioned are non-functioning for the purpose they received their patent. Having a patent from the government means that the government sanctions the product that is now patented.

I wonder if the Federal Trade Commission and or the Consumer Protection agencies would ever require proof positive of the performance of these two products, and if they did they would find that neither does what is claimed and then these companies would have to change the information they have been propagating and that would make the patents null and void.

I AM DIFFICULT TO SPEAK WITH

Shortly after I completed the above article a guy from one of the universities in Canada called me and asked what my bags were rated at, so I told him my plus 20 degree bag was rated for plus 20 degrees F and my minus 20 degree bag was rated for minus 20 degrees F. Since I live in the USA I think in terms of F versus C which I could have used, but like the French wanting to speak their language even if the person knows English I use F versus C.

He said not that rating and I then cut him off and said do you mean clo or r values? He said yes and I told him they have no value as far as I am concerned. Therefore, I never use them.

Now this guy told me we have talked in years past and that “I am difficult to speak with” and that ended the conversation.

He doesn’t understand that he in effect insulted my intelligence. I sell more sleeping bags to Canadians especially their RMP Force and military than all other companies in the world. The military personnel do not use the down bags that are issued to them because they have learned from experience they do not perform in their climatic conditions. The Canadian Rangers have used my Antarctic FTRSS for years. Then of course there is the two not one Canadian National Stock Numbers they assigned to my Hypothermia bag. There are by now easily over 1000 in service in Canada. Those NSN numbers as well as the USA NSN are on my web site.

There are a great many things that can be said to me that roll down my back like water down a ducks back, but I will never allow anyone to insult my intelligence when it comes to my subject, and that is insulation.

So whoever you are in Canada if you read this article remember after me there is no one you will ever speak with that knows what I know about the subject unless they have read and absorbed what I have written, something you should do.