Originally Posted by
Mike Henderson
Getting a patent is not that expensive. When I worked for a large company, we had a contract with a large law firm and they handled our patents for a flat fee of $3,000 per patent (this was in the 1990's). Of course, we filed a lot of patents so I suppose it was worth it to the law firm, but let's say it would have cost LN $10,000 to get a patent. That's not a lot of money to protect your intellectual property.
But I don't know what LN could have patented. They copied the Bedrock planes. Maybe there's something special they did that would merit a patent but I don't see anything from my look at the planes.
I might mention that LV has a patent on the two screws that hold the blade in position so that when you take the blade out and then replace it, it goes back into the same place. So fairly small things can be important (and valuable) and can be patented.
Mike
I'm probably wrong here, but my understanding is that it isn't the cost of getting the patent that is prohibitive, but the cost of enforcing the patent / protecting one's own IP. And don't the Chinese have a history of ignoring intellectual property laws anyway?
Your endgrain is like your bellybutton. Yes, I know you have it. No, I don't want to see it.