No problems here keeing the discussion in the Group Build. It's Doug's home.....Colin

• Peerless transformers, trademarks and intellectual property rights

I am the mod of the Group Build forum, and I have no problems with keeping the thread alive in this forum. I think it would confuse the "train of thought" if the discussion were moved.....Warmest regards, Colin Hester

Just got off the phone with my trademark attorney and he informs me that our trademark is still in force. And we discussed several other relevant issues.

I mentioned to him that the 622,592 comes up zip on the US Patent and Trademark Search engine... and he agreed that indeed that is odd.

But he has copies of and I have the original certificate issued under the aforementioned registration number which was renewed on March 6, 1996.

It's actually a pretty document... it has a gold embossed seal of the US Patent and Trademark office affixed to it.

For the doubting Thomas' I can also tell you (as I hold the document in hand) that it is designated as form # PTO-134 (Rev. 8-89) and is signed by a Bruce Tehman (can't actually decipher the guys last name with certainty)...

After talking to my attorney I am much relieved and reassured that we are indeed in fine shape as regards our ownership of the Peerless trademark as regsitered in the trademark office.

wooo-wee!!!!

msl

On the other hand.... it did put me in touch with my trademark attorney pronto tonto... and good things will further come of this.

I just hate to see the audioroundtable accord anyone the right to misappropiate a recognized brand name and\or a trademark.

it hurts the very same small businesses who makes up much of what we might call our vacuum tube little corner of the world.

msl

But you keep talking like AudioRoundTable.com is somehow advocating intellectual property theft. You've questined whether ART should "accord anyone the right to misapproprtiate a recognized brand name or trademark." You've made several statements like this, inferring AudioRoundTable.com is somehow responsible for misusing your trademarks.

I think what you want is for ART to banish Douglas or something. I don't know what you think ART should do. As I said earlier, there will not be a Magnequest forum and there won't be a Peerless transformers forum. No one is going to copy your forums or website and place them here. ART won't load up the search engines with Peerless references. There is absolutely nothing that ART will do that harms you. So what exactly do you expect from ART that you're not getting?

I do/did have some interest in patent law. I hold three US patents (6,080,530; 6,042,990; and 5,935,760.) and one world patent. I have also set up patent databases to track competitor's art.

It's been sometime since I've been involved with this type of law, but I would strongly advise you to contact your attorney and see why the number you reference is not valid. I would make sure the maintainace fees have been paid.......Colin

I'll have to look up your patents... would be neat to have a patent. But like others have pointed out patents are only as good as your ability to protect them. My brother had sought and gained a patent of a racing car transmission...which was subsequently widely violated... but my brother did not have the funds to go after the alleged infringers.

Re: our Peerless registration. Like I said I have a hard copy with the official embossing\seal of the trademark office. And the renewal was good for 10 years.... so it's not up until March of 2006.

You can be CERTAIN that it will be renewed. At one point I was going to let it lapse.... being a small business trademark attorneys are expensive... but this woke me up in a hurry.

and again I can't believe (overall) how nice people have been and how civil the conversation has been.

perhaps I should visit more often :=)

msl

This TX is based on the Peerless S-265 and has all of the very critical coil winding details copied from an original, and includes the modifications required to take advantage of teh E-Linear circuit design.

Remember also that no protection exists to cover the coil winding details of the transformer. One cannot steal something which is public property. Fortunately, the secrets of TX design are just an unwind away from who ever is in possession of the to-be-copied item.

Someone spoke of common sense, it was fairly plain to me that I am not selling Peerless transformers. I am offering a modification, which never had a Peerless name on it. So it cannot be a Peerless transformer.

I take it as admission from Mike by his involvement that I have actually managed to discover how to duplicate his cash cow designs. Mike, you have alternated by accusing me of being a hack, and that I have stolen something from you. I am not a hack, and I have stolen *NOTHING* of yours.

A little while ago somebody on AA suggested that you could have tied my hands very thoroughly with a non-competition/non-disclosure agreement and then turned me loose through all your archived designs. I would have been quite happy to do exactly that. This way has been a bit more illuminating though.

There are some questions put to Mike I would also like to see an answer to:

From manual block: If one were to need to replicate one transformer that held all of the specs and techniques of the Peerless Trans; but that particular unit was not manufactured and required sourceing; how would you describe the unit in question?

From Wayne: all of his IP questions regarding MQ, and most importantly for me the one requesting 'what do you want ART to do?'

Mike, you appear to seek a very selective enforcement of the rules, and specifically only your interpretation of said rules. I don't think you're going to get anywhere with that sort of behaviour.

looking forward to discussing this further with you.
Douglas