Leave the Lawyers out of it. (Editorial).MATT NAITOVE * When someone has an original idea in plastics, they often seek a patent. If it's a good idea that may be broadly useful, the inventor may offer it for license. And if it's a really good idea, it will stimulate an eruption of imitators. We have all seen what can happen next: lawsuits, threats of financial penalties, dueling The fighting of two persons, one against the other, at an appointed time and place, due to an earlier quarrel. If death results, the crime is murder. It differs from an affray in this, that the latter occurs on a sudden quarrel, while the former is always the result of design. press releases, and potential customers scared off by the fuss. Or, there is the happier scenario in which the competing parties sit down together and work out a licensing agreement. The recent K 2001 show in Dusseldorf presented examples of both scenarios. They involved two of the most fertile innovations of recent decades. One was gas-assist injection molding injection molding n. A manufacturing process for forming objects, as of plastic or metal, by heating the molding material to a fluid state and injecting it into a mold. . I have rarely seen a new plastics concept catch fire so quickly in the imaginations of so many processors--that is, not until microcellular foam molding repeated the phenomenon in the last few years. Many of you may recall the bitter legal wrangles over gas injection in the 1980s that kept many interested molders on the sidelines On the sidelines An investor who decides not to invest due to market uncertainty. on the sidelines Of or relating to investors who, having assessed the market, have decided to avoid committing their funds. until the dust settled. Fortunately, microcellular foam may be spared such a fate. Both processes were widely displayed at K 2001. In an eerie ee·rie or ee·ry adj. ee·ri·er, ee·ri·est 1. a. Inspiring inexplicable fear, dread, or uneasiness; strange and frightening. b. Suggestive of the supernatural; mysterious. See Synonyms at weird. echo of the past, one of the contenders in the gas-injection battles of the '80s was said to be stalking Criminal activity consisting of the repeated following and harassing of another person. Stalking is a distinctive form of criminal activity composed of a series of actions that taken individually might constitute legal behavior. the halls in Dusseldorf, ordering some exhibitors to turn off their gas-assist molding demonstrations or face legal consequences. Concurrently, two show exhibitors announced that they had peacefully settled a potential conflict over microcellular foam technology Trexel Inc., developer of the popular MuCell process, arrived at a licensing agreement with Demag Ergotech, whose Ergocell process is the first competitor to emerge in this field (see p. 49). David Bernstein, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Trexel explained why his firm chose to accommodate, rather than fight, a competing approach: "Trexel supports the idea that customers should have alternative equipment solutions for implementing the microcellular foam process." He added that "the market should decide" on the relative merits of the two approaches. "The last thing we should do is use patents to impede im·pede tr.v. im·ped·ed, im·ped·ing, im·pedes To retard or obstruct the progress of. See Synonyms at hinder1. [Latin imped technical progress in the market." |
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