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Have you ever tried to totally relax and found
some nagging thought demanding your attention?
The kind of under-current which doesn't go
away - but on the other hand, there isn't much
you can do about it. It's frustrating, and
doesn't help my blood pressure or anger level.
I'm upset is because there are some things going
on in our sport which detract from something I
dearly love. I resent the hell out of that.
My husband JC, and I have often commented that
someone can take a shot (figuratively) at one
of us and that's fine, but if that shot is just
at me, JC gets very upset and angry. And the
same holds true the other direction too.
So what is one to do when greed and ego drive some
to do unethical, slimy and very tacky business practices?
I'll explain, but I hope you are willing to contribute
to my Legal Defense Fund if one of the guilty parties
files suit against me.
The wife of a friend paid for and took a casting class.
She did learn how to hold a fly rod. The instructor
at the end of the class told her she really needed to
take the "Advanced" class. Cool, she hadn't learned
how to cast and an advanced class was going to fix
that? Nothing was mentioned about stopping the rod,
nor anything related to line control. The instructor
did however, emphasis how good HE was since HE was a
Master Certified Casting Instructor.
STOP! No, I'm not going there again, except to say
that program is still in need of severe repair.
When there are problems the majority of them have
to do with ego and greed.
There's more.
If you are a rod builder you may be aware of a snit
between the guide maker "The Big Guide Company" and
the rest of the world who produces guides. I'm told
"The Big Guide Company" had a patent, which causes
some head-scratching since guides of every configuration
were already 'known' and you can't patent previously
know technology (which the patent office calls 'known art'.)
So the "The Big Guide Company's" patent expired.
All patents have a length of time to be valid. When
it expires, such as the drug patents, cheaper drugs,
of exactly the same thing, are available from other
manufacturers. These are sometimes called generic drugs.
The inventor/creator of the drug has had an opportunity
to make their profit from the new drug, and in time,
the drug becomes cheaper and more readily available.
In my mind this is a win-win situation.
Back to "The Big Guide Company". The patent expired,
which allows other companies to produce similar guides,
probably at a lower price as well. That is how it
usually works. Except not this time.
Greed and ego? Well, "The Big Guide Company" trademarked
the guide. How? They made a drawing of the guide and
called it their logo. So if another company makes a
guide of that shape it is "infringing on "The
Big Guide Company's" trademark/copywrite". This one
is in court, and unfortunately the man with the balls
to fight it dropped dead from a heart attack. He was
Bob Batson of Batson Enterprises, also known as RainShadow.
I don't know if Bob's sons will still fight it or not.
There are other companies who are involved, and some who
have agreed to "license" from "The Big Guide Company"
to avoid the lawsuit. No guts either. "The Big Guide
Company" recently had a full-page ad in a fishing trade
magazine explaining their side of the story. The 'other
side' didn't appear of course. This is just too slimy.
There's more. How about a US company which makes vises
for fly tying? I believe they had a patent, another
mystery since the man who received the patent wasn't
the inventor either, but since the two men who did
invent it gave him their ideas I guess that makes it
ok. Anyway, that patent also expired. So what did
they do? Any guesses?
They made a bad drawing of a bent arm of a fly tying
vise and made it their logo. Got the picture? So no
other company can produce a bent-arm vise without
"infringing" on the trademark. Letters went out,
decease and desist - or - pay us for using our
bent-arm design. To my knowledge no one is even
fighting this one.
Tacky? Slippery? Slimy?
You bet! Add ego and greed to this one too.
I wonder if technically some hook company could trademark
a shape of a hook and prevent any other company or person
from producing that hook? Or how about a cardboard
packing box in a logo of a moving company? Or the
shape of a wheel? Or axle?
Get the picture?
It is extending the life of the patent, illegally by
going around the law. Ah, just a loop hole. All
is fair in business, right?
It's worse than you might think. Remember a patent
has a life span? Depending on the type of
patent it is 15 - 17 years. A TRADEMARK HAS
NO TIME LIMIT.
There is however a five-year span where these trademarks
can be revoked. Someone has to file with the trademark
office to get them revoked. And by the way, both
trademarks could be challenged because you can't use
an integral functioning part of a product as a
logo/trademark.
From where I sit, it doesn't look like any one has
the balls to do that.
You think Enron, Global Crossing and Martha Stewart
are the bad guys?
Think again, it's right here in the fly fishing world.
~ The LadyFisher
Editor's Note: July 14, 2003, 10:45 AM, Batson Enterprises
will continue the fight against "The Big Guide Company".
If you would like to comment on this or any other article please feel free to
post your views on the FAOL Bulletin Board!
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