I have a few patents. Here's 3 things to think about. 1) Getting a patent is cool, but it is only as good as your defense of it. If someone violates your patent, you have to go to court to defend it. Big corporations have big legal budgets. 2) Just because you have a patent doesn't mean anyone will buy your product. Figuring out how to sell your product is more important than getting the patent. 3) Corporations can make slight modifications to your product to rip your product off without violating your patent. Keep up the good work!
You have zero chance of defending your design or product without a patent, so mine as well get one. The existence of people and companies with more money and ability to challenge you in court or rip of your design is constant
An alternative to a patent to protect an idea if to publish an idea if you don’t have the legal muscle, you forfeit a patent but the big-co can’t exercise against you. Patents may not work out, but there are cases where it brought value to inventor, by selling it or getting partnered with a maker. Patent rights are first to file.
Good on you for getting a patent. I am not an attorney, but I report copies of our products to Amazon regularly referencing design and utility patents. I've even sued a few copycats. Patents are extremely valuable for protecting your invention. Hope it blows up in the market.
First, I love my form-setter. I put in 150ft of landscape edging with it. My father had left his career as an electrical engineer and graduated law school to become a patent attorney the same year I graduated high school. He is retiring this year. I had often enjoyed working for him doing patentability searches. I’m glad you found a good attorney that treated you well and priced fairly.
Interesting all the carping about whether Scott’s form setter hammer is worth it, how people from China and elsewhere will rip it off, who would buy it, and how it can be hacked DIY. Maybe reasonable questions…but MEANWHILE somebody’s missing the point… Scott’s video isn’t about the hammer. It’s about pursuing an idea and how to go from point A to B. Thank you Scott.
Congrats on the design patent! Design patents are closer to copyrights than to utility patents. When most people think “patent” they think utility patent. What Don is helping you protect is the specific design of the hammer, for which the drawings are *very* important. Utility patents have novelty and nonobviousness requirements that may or may not be met with that design. As you noted, this patent should help you control 1:1 copying and keep honest competitors honest. Getting, maintaining, and enforcing a utility patent can be much harder and more expensive.
A design patent has more sway with something like a form set hammer though, vs. most other products, where a design patent is trivial. The shape is integral to it working right. You know this
EC couldn't get a utility patent if he'd been using the hammer for 30 years. Once you leave the experimental phase of optimizing an invention, you must file a patent application. If you use the invention in public after the experimental phase ends your only protection for the utility of the invention is trade secret.
As a patent holder of a construction related product, as well as non patented construction related product... there is a time and reason for each approach. I hate seeing the number of people who waste money pattenting fairs. feel free to run them by me I always say.
MIT professor Thomas Eagar has a course on UA-cam covering law and technology. The guest speaker is a prominent patent attorney and provides some great information regarding patents and intellectual property.
Ive been watching your channel since you built the deck for your mother and knew here I'm going to learn a few things on how to speak and influance people. Thanks you have been a great influancer since.
I have a Masters of Law in Intellectual Property Law from a renowned University in London and the way you explained this made all the legal knowledge I posses practical. Thank you so much Sir.
From my understanding a design patent is the first hammer, and it's initial application. A utility patent recognizes that using the initial patent, you've modified the application for a more specific use?
In the early 2000s after sweating on the flightline I had an idea. I jokingly called it the ball sack. A pouch to keep my junk from sticking to my legs . I told everyone my idea and now there are at least 3 companies producing them! Yes I thought about patenting, but what good is a patent? 5k just to register etc. The important thing is they're being made! It's only a matter of time, money and connections something regular guys don't have. I still have some ideas, but 20 years later still no time, money or connections and I tell everyone!
Congratulations on the patent. That’s a sweet hammer, but $250 is a little steep on it in my opinion. $49/$59 seems about right. But I also understand you’ve accrued some big costs to try to recover
This is a pretty large channel now. The Video and lighting are great. The audio needs to be held to a higher standard. Invest in the Sennheiser MKH 416.
Did something in food production base cove. Sealed wall to floor….i,portent in food safety. My boss allowed a vendor we used to patent without my involvement. Would have had to sue employer and vendor. Ugh.
Long story short: if you think you have a potentially patentable idea, talk with a patent attorney or agent. You can find them a roster of them on the the USPTO website. Most of the commentary below re patents is nonsense.
Scott good on you, however, in 45 years of formwork, mind you never in the Las Vegas heat, but, every Michigan winter, I could never justify the cost of a, "formsetter hammer", not to mention the lack of practical application
Neighbor had a good design stolen by a major tool brand. He sued them took about a decade but he won. They almost lost everything to fund the lawsuit. The patent means nothing for trolls. There are unfortunately many pigs in this world. His tip was to not sell your widgets to large box stores keep it private and your own distribution until you grow enough to defend yourself. You don’t just have to worry about people at those companies searching thru their inventories now you have to worry about the image recognition and modeling from their ai data systems. I do not doubt the nefariousness that could arise from ai for creators.
A Fiskers axe is cheaper than a Gransfors axe. Those that want a hand forged product to help support someone they like will pay the price. Price isnt always the reason to buy.
Form setting isn't some artistic craft performed by aesthetes who will revel in the hand forged purity of the tool. Your average form setter is not going to spend $250 I'm pretty sure that most actual concrete guys who wanted a tool like that could take a cheap single jack, a piece of a truck leaf spring, a stick welder and a 7-1/2" grinder, and in an afternoon come up with something that would work 95% as well for 10% of the price, and spend the remainder on beer. American Beer. In cans.
Franco-Prussian war taught the world a valuable lesson, he who starts the war with more gold on hand, wins the war. You may have a patent, but the corporations have lawyers.... good luck.
I'm a retired engineer, having worked for a very large corporation that has many thousands of patents. We got a bit of training on intellectual property, and I recall the lesson that the patent just gives you the right to spend a lot of money and time defending your patent. One of the steps prior to getting a patent is probably to figure out why you want a patent, and if it is worth the expense. The situation is going to be different for a small inventor than a large corporation. With a hammer like Scott's, I suppose you would be wanting protection from a large tool manufacturer taking your idea... and I suppose they'd just make some small changes to get around the patent. I hope someone can share their experience with this scenario.
@@SkyhawkSteve Your comment is excellent, especially "... I recall the lesson that the patent just gives you the right to spend a lot of money and time defending your patent..." I went on Scott's website and saw his hammer is $250.00...a lot of money for a hammer, no matter how good it might be. Unfortunately, someone in China is going to come up with one exactly like it for $99 and what is Scott going to do? Spend the rest of his life fighting something like this, losing countless hours of sleep, feeling angry all the time that someone would do this, and spending tens of thousands of dollars to try and stop this, etc? Then, if he wins this one, fifty other Chinese companies will step in and start the battle all over again.
The USPTO is a joke. They have very specific rules for trademarks, if you arent complying they shut you down. Unless youre a big company. My trademark was awarded to a company that applied for the trademark after I did, and they aren't following their commerce rules, ie actually using the trademark. My trademark is my business name, and very actively used in commerce and they still gave it to a non complying company that doesnt use the mark in any way shape or form.
My .02$ "A patent is only as strong as it's (your) financial defense. " Also, It is not a matter of IF it will be stolen, but rather, When it will be stolen. I enjoyed the education from my pat lawyer, albeit expensive. 😅
And now i can look at your drawings on your pat. and change it 5% and remake your hammer.. My 2 cent is to have a stamp made but never get a pat. that is what i have done, and a crook will waste years looking for a pat. drawing that isnt there
Depends on the claims in his patent and if you dodge enough of them. You might be able to lock him out of using your quote improvement quote, but that's it.
You are doing your viewers a disservice if you don’t make a video of all the ways you can lose your right to patent, like telling your friends or family about your invention or placing it on sale. Do these or other actions and you trigger inflexible deadlines to file an application. Miss the deadlines, even by one day, and you lose the right to patent your invention forever.
$250 for your hammer? I'm a bit disappointed at that. You must do quite well from all your other stuff, so why the need to charge so much for this? Am I missing something? Please educate me because it seems a tad extortionate. I'm all for someone making a profit, but the markup on this must be tremendous. I have a deep respect for you, but this seems like taking advantage of a situation, especially in today's world, when most of us are struggling to get by. I am not a 'troll'. My username is my real name. Just want to understand how you can justify such a high price?
Interesting video, but it states facts that apply only to the U.S.A. Patents in other countries are as different as the flowers that bloom in different places around the world. So this informative video is not as useful as a global resource as I had been hoping.
First 47 seconds didn't watch yet fastest way that will hold up in federal court is make 10 copies and mail to yourself will hold up after the judge opens one in court with federal postage. Then apply for your patient
The US and pretty much rest of the world is now a "first to file" system as opposed to the prior "first to invent" system where you're technique was used
They do it with music all the time they won't deliver empty envelopes my wife works in the PD for 20 years. Thinking like that tells me what kind of person you are. Looking for a free lunch
@@attiliopampanin9503 I make my living as an investigator (hence the PI in my username), and I've seen that "defense" in trademark and patent cases several times, each time shot down. It's an old urban myth.
@@attiliopampanin9503 I've been working as an investigator since the early 90s (hence the PI in my username) and have done a ton of patent and trademark investigations (work for HP just about bought me a new car). I've seen people try that defense several times, and each time it was shot down as invalid, often with the reason I gave you. Mail yourself an open envelope with 3 blank sheets in it. If you think the post office is diligent, I've got a bridge to sell you. And IF your wife really does work in the PD office (which is criminal law and totally different from civil or patent law), you should know better than rushing to judgement on others. It just makes you a fool.
I did not watch this video, not going to either - because it is wrong. You cannot patent an idea. Not possible. You can patent a product or an process or an improvement on such. But you cannot patent an idea. Anyone claiming otherwise is just wrong. Fact.
What specifically about this hammer is good for setting forms? I've been a concrete former for 14 years and the lack of a claw on it for pulling nails and prying is an obvious setback in my eyes
I have a few patents. Here's 3 things to think about. 1) Getting a patent is cool, but it is only as good as your defense of it. If someone violates your patent, you have to go to court to defend it. Big corporations have big legal budgets. 2) Just because you have a patent doesn't mean anyone will buy your product. Figuring out how to sell your product is more important than getting the patent. 3) Corporations can make slight modifications to your product to rip your product off without violating your patent. Keep up the good work!
You have zero chance of defending your design or product without a patent, so mine as well get one. The existence of people and companies with more money and ability to challenge you in court or rip of your design is constant
@@chickenfishhybrid44some people think it's worth spending $5k to get that first, when they have $6k total and 0 sales
@@Joe-sg9ll I'm positive there's cases that are much less justified than others.
An alternative to a patent to protect an idea if to publish an idea if you don’t have the legal muscle, you forfeit a patent but the big-co can’t exercise against you. Patents may not work out, but there are cases where it brought value to inventor, by selling it or getting partnered with a maker. Patent rights are first to file.
@@Joe-sg9ll I thought it was $10k
Good on you for getting a patent. I am not an attorney, but I report copies of our products to Amazon regularly referencing design and utility patents. I've even sued a few copycats. Patents are extremely valuable for protecting your invention. Hope it blows up in the market.
First, I love my form-setter. I put in 150ft of landscape edging with it. My father had left his career as an electrical engineer and graduated law school to become a patent attorney the same year I graduated high school. He is retiring this year. I had often enjoyed working for him doing patentability searches. I’m glad you found a good attorney that treated you well and priced fairly.
Interesting all the carping about whether Scott’s form setter hammer is worth it, how people from China and elsewhere will rip it off, who would buy it, and how it can be hacked DIY. Maybe reasonable questions…but MEANWHILE somebody’s missing the point… Scott’s video isn’t about the hammer. It’s about pursuing an idea and how to go from point A to B. Thank you Scott.
With a grinder and a five pound shop sledgehammer it could be done, but Scott’s is super nice and well crafted!
Congrats on the design patent! Design patents are closer to copyrights than to utility patents. When most people think “patent” they think utility patent. What Don is helping you protect is the specific design of the hammer, for which the drawings are *very* important. Utility patents have novelty and nonobviousness requirements that may or may not be met with that design. As you noted, this patent should help you control 1:1 copying and keep honest competitors honest. Getting, maintaining, and enforcing a utility patent can be much harder and more expensive.
A design patent has more sway with something like a form set hammer though, vs.
most other products, where a design patent is trivial. The shape is integral to it working right. You know this
@@mahlee18 For sure.
EC couldn't get a utility patent if he'd been using the hammer for 30 years. Once you leave the experimental phase of optimizing an invention, you must file a patent application. If you use the invention in public after the experimental phase ends your only protection for the utility of the invention is trade secret.
Congratulations on your patent!
As a patent holder of a construction related product, as well as non patented construction related product... there is a time and reason for each approach. I hate seeing the number of people who waste money pattenting fairs.
feel free to run them by me I always say.
MIT professor Thomas Eagar has a course on UA-cam covering law and technology. The guest speaker is a prominent patent attorney and provides some great information regarding patents and intellectual property.
Congratulations!!
Gotta love it! Great idea!
It's always great when you post a new video. It is must watch TV.
Ive been watching your channel since you built the deck for your mother and knew here I'm going to learn a few things on how to speak and influance people. Thanks you have been a great influancer since.
I have a Masters of Law in Intellectual Property Law from a renowned University in London and the way you explained this made all the legal knowledge I posses practical. Thank you so much Sir.
Bravo!
Great accomplishment.
From my understanding a design patent is the first hammer, and it's initial application. A utility patent recognizes that using the initial patent, you've modified the application for a more specific use?
Thanks for the awesome content and great video!!
It turned out to be "elementary my dear Wadsworth ".Ask and learn, or watch EC, thanks Scott for another essential video
Way to go Scott
Congratulations!
Congrats 👍
In the early 2000s after sweating on the flightline I had an idea. I jokingly called it the ball sack. A pouch to keep my junk from sticking to my legs . I told everyone my idea and now there are at least 3 companies producing them!
Yes I thought about patenting, but what good is a patent? 5k just to register etc. The important thing is they're being made! It's only a matter of time, money and connections something regular guys don't have.
I still have some ideas, but 20 years later still no time, money or connections and I tell everyone!
They are a game changer!
Congratulations on the patent. That’s a sweet hammer, but $250 is a little steep on it in my opinion. $49/$59 seems about right. But I also understand you’ve accrued some big costs to try to recover
Where do I buy it?
You're the best brotha!
Now that you have made the hammer and this video, I’m curious how long before we see copies coming out of China. They work quickly over there.
Hat off to you with your patent.
Would love to get 2 of them
When are you going to offer them outside US?
Tried to order one but it looks like it's not possible to ship to Norway.
Why the bottom and not the top?
I have an axe head pattern I forge that is much different and distinct and have been thinking about getting a patent for around 2 years
This is your sign!
Its a single jack and estwing in one.
This is a pretty large channel now. The Video and lighting are great. The audio needs to be held to a higher standard. Invest in the Sennheiser MKH 416.
Sounds just fine to me.
@@thedevilinthecircuit1414same
Deep is your incredible mind, priceless ❤
We have a different system over here in England. You need a solicitor....
They'll still make it in China, patent or not and for a fraction of the price.
They already make tire hammers, I can't see this changing their output at all
Hiya Scott, thanks because I have a few ideas! PS check your description wording, as a design guy "aesthetic" is a better choice. Cheers!
Cannot find the Don Erlser interview episode? Which number episode is it? Link please :)
Sorry it hasn't been released yet :) keep watching EC2 and it will be out in the next few weeks
Did something in food production base cove. Sealed wall to floor….i,portent in food safety. My boss allowed a vendor we used to patent without my involvement. Would have had to sue employer and vendor.
Ugh.
Thanks for your videos it really helps me in God grace to learn what it means to be a men
John 3:3-5 is the best thing that ever happend to me
Long story short: if you think you have a potentially patentable idea, talk with a patent attorney or agent. You can find them a roster of them on the the USPTO website. Most of the commentary below re patents is nonsense.
Scott good on you, however, in 45 years of formwork, mind you never in the Las Vegas heat, but, every Michigan winter, I could never justify the cost of a, "formsetter hammer", not to mention the lack of practical application
How much are the form setter hammer
They are on his website. I think they are around 250
@@rcosg542ytdang
I just received my EC hammer yesterday. I told my sons about it, and they will surely take care of it 30 years from now when I am long gone.
Patents are only valid for 20 years.
@@Islandwaterjet I think the OP was talking about the hammer, which I'm positive will last hundreds of years. Maybe not the handle.
Nice.
Neighbor had a good design stolen by a major tool brand. He sued them took about a decade but he won. They almost lost everything to fund the lawsuit. The patent means nothing for trolls. There are unfortunately many pigs in this world. His tip was to not sell your widgets to large box stores keep it private and your own distribution until you grow enough to defend yourself. You don’t just have to worry about people at those companies searching thru their inventories now you have to worry about the image recognition and modeling from their ai data systems. I do not doubt the nefariousness that could arise from ai for creators.
You can send me the form setter you didn't have to send to the patent office!
Wow
A tire hammer is this exact form of hammer for a fraction of the price.
$30 will get you a good one
A Fiskers axe is cheaper than a Gransfors axe. Those that want a hand forged product to help support someone they like will pay the price. Price isnt always the reason to buy.
@@sw5334maybe but….$250.00? I’ve been a carpenter for over 40 years….i have a lot of hammers, but none that cost anywhere near $250.
Form setting isn't some artistic craft performed by aesthetes who will revel in the hand forged purity of the tool. Your average form setter is not going to spend $250 I'm pretty sure that most actual concrete guys who wanted a tool like that could take a cheap single jack, a piece of a truck leaf spring, a stick welder and a 7-1/2" grinder, and in an afternoon come up with something that would work 95% as well for 10% of the price, and spend the remainder on beer. American Beer. In cans.
@@andrewalexander9492 agree……so the market for $250 form setter hammers is who/where ??
awsome advice and i want one of those hammers
Franco-Prussian war taught the world a valuable lesson, he who starts the war with more gold on hand, wins the war.
You may have a patent, but the corporations have lawyers.... good luck.
I'm a retired engineer, having worked for a very large corporation that has many thousands of patents. We got a bit of training on intellectual property, and I recall the lesson that the patent just gives you the right to spend a lot of money and time defending your patent. One of the steps prior to getting a patent is probably to figure out why you want a patent, and if it is worth the expense. The situation is going to be different for a small inventor than a large corporation. With a hammer like Scott's, I suppose you would be wanting protection from a large tool manufacturer taking your idea... and I suppose they'd just make some small changes to get around the patent. I hope someone can share their experience with this scenario.
@@SkyhawkSteve Your comment is excellent, especially "... I recall the lesson that the patent just gives you the right to spend a lot of money and time defending your patent..." I went on Scott's website and saw his hammer is $250.00...a lot of money for a hammer, no matter how good it might be. Unfortunately, someone in China is going to come up with one exactly like it for $99 and what is Scott going to do? Spend the rest of his life fighting something like this, losing countless hours of sleep, feeling angry all the time that someone would do this, and spending tens of thousands of dollars to try and stop this, etc? Then, if he wins this one, fifty other Chinese companies will step in and start the battle all over again.
what's significant about the hammer
ua-cam.com/video/TvIx-3QBaRw/v-deo.html
@@essentialcraftsman impressive!
The USPTO is a joke. They have very specific rules for trademarks, if you arent complying they shut you down. Unless youre a big company. My trademark was awarded to a company that applied for the trademark after I did, and they aren't following their commerce rules, ie actually using the trademark. My trademark is my business name, and very actively used in commerce and they still gave it to a non complying company that doesnt use the mark in any way shape or form.
One minor thing, as you're sending prototypes and patterns around, you might wish to have people sign non-disclosure agreements.
I want one and so does my professor at El Camino College in california, I think a 7lb is the way I am 33
My .02$ "A patent is only as strong as it's (your) financial defense. " Also, It is not a matter of IF it will be stolen, but rather, When it will be stolen. I enjoyed the education from my pat lawyer, albeit expensive. 😅
Hi Scott what happened to my comment
Awesome!
And even better looking hammer!!
The issues with patents? You have to have the cash to enforce it. Few do and thats why its a waste of money.
That type of hammer has been around for millenia
And now i can look at your drawings on your pat. and change it 5% and remake your hammer..
My 2 cent is to have a stamp made but never get a pat. that is what i have done, and a crook will waste years looking for a pat. drawing that isnt there
Depends on the claims in his patent and if you dodge enough of them. You might be able to lock him out of using your quote improvement quote, but that's it.
Trivial changes are obvious in view of the original invention, and therefore would infringe a utility patent.
My only point is why i wont get a patent anything, is it makes too easy for someone to steal
If you made them out of Titanium or sold them as "German Engineering" you could quadruple the price!
Yeah kidding...
You are doing your viewers a disservice if you don’t make a video of all the ways you can lose your right to patent, like telling your friends or family about your invention or placing it on sale. Do these or other actions and you trigger inflexible deadlines to file an application. Miss the deadlines, even by one day, and you lose the right to patent your invention forever.
This is correct.
No, HE IS NOT doing anyone a disservice by not taking the place of an expert in patent law.
$250 for your hammer? I'm a bit disappointed at that. You must do quite well from all your other stuff, so why the need to charge so much for this? Am I missing something? Please educate me because it seems a tad extortionate. I'm all for someone making a profit, but the markup on this must be tremendous. I have a deep respect for you, but this seems like taking advantage of a situation, especially in today's world, when most of us are struggling to get by. I am not a 'troll'. My username is my real name. Just want to understand how you can justify such a high price?
Rob, if you will go to my website and email me, I will explain all of the costs to you.
Interesting video, but it states facts that apply only to the U.S.A. Patents in other countries are as different as the flowers that bloom in different places around the world. So this informative video is not as useful as a global resource as I had been hoping.
Well of course- law is different in every single country.
First 47 seconds didn't watch yet fastest way that will hold up in federal court is make 10 copies and mail to yourself will hold up after the judge opens one in court with federal postage. Then apply for your patient
The US and pretty much rest of the world is now a "first to file" system as opposed to the prior "first to invent" system where you're technique was used
False. It's quite easy to mail an unsealed envelope to yourself and then 5 years later insert something in it and seal.
They do it with music all the time they won't deliver empty envelopes my wife works in the PD for 20 years. Thinking like that tells me what kind of person you are. Looking for a free lunch
@@attiliopampanin9503 I make my living as an investigator (hence the PI in my username), and I've seen that "defense" in trademark and patent cases several times, each time shot down. It's an old urban myth.
@@attiliopampanin9503 I've been working as an investigator since the early 90s (hence the PI in my username) and have done a ton of patent and trademark investigations (work for HP just about bought me a new car). I've seen people try that defense several times, and each time it was shot down as invalid, often with the reason I gave you. Mail yourself an open envelope with 3 blank sheets in it. If you think the post office is diligent, I've got a bridge to sell you.
And IF your wife really does work in the PD office (which is criminal law and totally different from civil or patent law), you should know better than rushing to judgement on others. It just makes you a fool.
I did not watch this video, not going to either - because it is wrong.
You cannot patent an idea. Not possible.
You can patent a product or an process or an improvement on such. But you cannot patent an idea. Anyone claiming otherwise is just wrong. Fact.
What if your idea consists of information regarding a new process.
You're just being pedantic with words. Everyone else knows what we mean here.
What specifically about this hammer is good for setting forms? I've been a concrete former for 14 years and the lack of a claw on it for pulling nails and prying is an obvious setback in my eyes
Bump bump
patentreviewpro AI fixes this. Utility patents protect invention functionality.