| deathfaces |
 Posted: 10/12/2008 at 5:25 PM Post subject: new to the board/patents and the like |
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Hello,
Part-time listener, first-time poster, and a longtime admirer of aluminum necked instruments. I've to date made two and have another guitar in process. I've made three of my own aluminum necked guitars and I have recently been working on a design of my own to put into production. I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice, most importantly in the patent department. My design is different from the receiver system on the Bean, but i'm nervous because I am more afraid of violating someone else's patent. I am back and forth on patenting my own design, because I'm not much interested in opening a factory, and more interested in small, custom runs, and i don't know if its patentable. But I am also fearful that not patenting my design would be "counter-productive." I just want to make guitars and not get screwed somewhere down the line. Know what i mean?
I'm not in it for money or glory or to compete with existing companies, I just really love aluminum neck guitars from the bottom of my heart.
Thanks in advance for any advice and support.
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| deathfaces |
| Posted: 10/23/2008 at 4:19 PM Post subject: |
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no replies, fair enough.
if anyone has any suggestions to what they might like to see on an aluminum neck guitar, i'm open to suggestions, comments, etc.
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| gse |
| Posted: 10/28/2008 at 01:45 AM Post subject: |
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I dont think you would have to worry about too much about patents ( I think the bean patent was only valid for about 20 years anyway) If you look at EGC, Bastin and even the Tactical Works guitars their construction is not that far removed from Travis Bean guitars (i wouldnt think they were different enough to be outside the constraints of the Bean patent). From what I can gather Travis Bean wouldnt be the sort of guy that would be phased about people using his basic idea anyhow. Have you got photos of the guitars you have made. I have made a copy of a TB500 myself and plan to make another soon
Cheers and good luck with the next ones
Gary
P.S Have you seen this link (TB patent)
http://web.archive.org/we.....last.com/bean/patent.html
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| deathfaces |
| Posted: 11/11/2008 at 1:05 PM Post subject: |
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thanks for the info! i hadn't seen the bean patent, only the kramer one. i had a bit of a panic about the whole thing at one point, but otherwise i'm proceeding. Right now my technical drawings are being transformed into a 3d cnc file for production, so hopefully in the coming weeks we'll know if this thing is moving ahead or DOA. I'll post some pictures of the work I've done in the coming weeks. I'm oiling the body for my latest creation as we speak, but understand that that's a whole lot of talk without any pictures.
thanks again.
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| Bastin |
| Posted: 11/27/2008 at 08:27 AM Post subject: |
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Hey, man. Congratulations on the project. I can certainly appreciate where you are coming from.
My short answer to the patent issue: not worth it.
Have you consulted a patent lawyer yet? I could give you a bunch of advice about that, but I wouldn't want to waste your time with redundancy.
I am far from expert in this area, but you will basically spend a bunch of money and get a really narrow patent that wouldn't protect very much. You could get a "design" patent if your guitars have any extraordinary aesthetic features. You could get a "utility" patent if you have some marvelous and revolutionary way of building and assembling the guitars. But a guitar is a guitar; I think that getting a utility patent for anything short of a re-invention of the guitar's basic features would be unproductive.
And if your design is revolutionary, you sell thousands, and the market is there then you can count on someone finding your way around the patent anyway - most likely something in another country, of course.
One thing that keeps competition to a minimum in this little section of the "business" is access to the crucial resources of the trade. You're already learning that R&D, modeling, programming, and machining isn't fast, easy, or cheap. So even if you have some great ideas it would be one hell of a long road to copy it. Most would find that it's not worth it.
My original designs are fundamentally similar to Travis Beans. Naturally I think they represent improvements, but I just recently remodeled and retooled for some totally new instruments. I'm trying to get my first few built before the end of the year. There is always a better way. And now I feel as though I have distanced myself from the Bean design without unreasonably approaching contemporary designs.
Best of luck with your project.
PICTURES!
Kind regards,
Matt Bastin
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| crazyb |
| Posted: 09/20/2009 at 3:05 PM Post subject: |
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Hey, how far has your project come?
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| crazyb |
| Posted: 09/20/2009 at 3:06 PM Post subject: |
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Hey, how's your project coming?
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| crazyb |
| Posted: 09/20/2009 at 3:11 PM Post subject: |
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Hey, how's your project coming?
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| deathfaces |
| Posted: 09/25/2009 at 11:15 AM Post subject: |
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crazyb -
things are stalled for the most part. partly due to funding, and partly due a lack of parties interested in milling the aluminum. the 3D files are all created, but i'm hoping to find a school or university or someone to cut a prototype before i move along with further production. I sent out a bunch of quote requests but only one place got back to me... to tell me they weren't interested. For the most part its on the back burner. My next plan, once I have some money in the bank, is to approach motorcycle and custom auto shops and see if they are interested.
If anyone has suggestions or access to a CNC and would be interested in helping me out, i'd love to hear from you.
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