Editorials
Patent Watch, June 2007
By The Patent Gnome
Jun 8, 2007, 13:00

The wheels of progress are ever-turning.  Beside them rolls the juggernaut of licensing, royalties and infringement law suits…

Marlin Ballard (can you say 'Tuna Love Song'?) has received a patent for a device conceived of and utilized by players since at least 1984 (another STERLING example of the patent office's failure to perform adequate prior art searches).  Take one dentist's mirror and slide it around your cover.  See target, shoot target.

No offense Marlin, your concept goes the extra mile and comes up with a way to attach that dental mirror directly to the marker-but you might have saved some attorney's and filing fees if you had realized that the idea has been out there for 23 years and no one has yet tried to commercialize it.

Marlin got patent #7,225,576 on June 5th.

David Bell (bow to the god of auto-loaders.  Failure to make proper obeisance shall result in a ball-breaking) along with Simon Stevens gets a design patent for a loader shell-and then gives it to NPS.  Well, not really.  I'm sure they were paid something...This is what happens when you sell your patents to a company other than the one you are working for-you have to resort to design patents for 'Halo' loaders.  Or is that a 'Pulse' shell?  Hmmmm.

NPS (or is that Kee?-hmmmm-who actually owns the IP?) gets design patent # D544,047

Craig Miller (Procaps, Smokin') and Milt Call (Ultimate Airball) finally get their bunker anchor system patent.  They've been working on this one for a while.  They got this one on the second try and it covers the retention system that uses elastic members as well as some other innovations.  

Milt and Craig got patent #7,223,185

Jeff Orr (scion of the WGP family or Orrs) also seems to enjoy design patents.  He got one for an angled receiver.  Its pretty.  Yawn.

Jeff got design patent number D542,863

Brant Friesen and Curtis Shawn want to be David Bell and Simon Stevens.  Ummm, in my humble opinion-not gonna happen.  They were issued a patent for what some are calling the 'Pinnochio Loader'.  Interesting idea-the more hits you wipe, the bigger it grows.  Ha. Ha.

Actually, it's a loader that takes a specially made pod in the front.  They claim the need for this is because 'advanced players are clumsy'  (I inferred this from their description since the biggest problem seems to be spilled paintballs while reloading...)

They seem to have ideas for an auto-ejecting version that uses some kind of sensor.  Ok-so now we're gonna have batteries on our pods?

Good luck.  You can visit this loader on the shelf next to the Q-Loader.  Pods NOT interchangeable...

Brant and Curtis got patent # 7,216,641

Henry Guy Stevens (I HOPE he's no relation to Simon) and John Colin Dawson (why do the brits insist on using their middle names on their applications?  It reads like a listing of serial killers…) can now blow mold polyvinylalcohol.

We know this because they have a method AND a device for doing so.  Polyvinylalcohol capsules are gonna be the gelatin capsules of the future.  Why?  'Cause Henry Guy says so and John Colin is gonna make ya!

This application has been knocking around since 2000 and finally got granted.  I didn't see an extension to its date, but they probably got one considering how long its been out there.  I don't know whether PVA is more or less expensive than gelatin, but I do know that its not hydrophilic, so balls made out of this stuff will have a longer shelf-life and won't swell from humidity. 

I wonder who is going to be the first paint manufacturer to option this technology-provided that someone hasn't done so already.  Of course, if we ever want to see this on the street, we better hope that none of the existing paint manufacturers options it, since most of them seem to be wedded for life to gelatin and they'll just bury this thing.

Dawson and Stevens got patent #7,195,777

That's it for now.  Patent Gnome signing off-but before I go, one last thing.  SOME key paintball patents only have about 4 years left before dropping into the public domain.  Before you sign that licensing agreement out of fear and under threat of dire consequences-ask yourself if you can wait 4 years...