Comment by gentleman11
7 months ago
The government is passing a law that says only company x make saws, due to various patents making it unrealistic to make your own design. They’re outlawing competition. Unless every relevant patent is opened up, this is extreme regulatory capture and is going to be a price gouging patent licensing circus after it passes
>due to various patents making it unrealistic to make your own design
Is it unrealistic, or are the companies simply not pursuing that market because it would harm their existing lines of product?
>Unless every relevant patent is opened up, this is extreme regulatory capture and is going to be a price gouging patent licensing circus after it passes
Personally, I'm fine with that.
As per the article, an entry-level SawStop retails for $899.
There's not excuse why this kind of tech isn't in every saw. The low cost of existing saws is a negative externality whose cost (cut off fingers) is borne by the society (insurance companies, healthcare, and government).
Right in the article, it says most patents are now expired and for the final key patent that expires in 2033, the owner -- SawStop's corp parent -- has offered to donate it to the public if this rule passes.
edit: if you believe different, please share. But per this article, patents do not seem to be a reason to avoid this tech. And the SawStop v1 was introduced in 2004, so it stands to reason we can now produce patent-free equivalent tech to the 2004 machine.
Here is a link to Gass' patent portfolio:
https://patents.justia.com/inventor/stephen-f-gass
Notice that the vast majority of his patents have to do with various aspects of "active injury mitigation technology", primarily related to saws, and that the most recent one was filed in August 2021. The only patent being offered up is the original--- Patent 9,724,840--- which basically only releases a very specific, early implementation of the safety system that has since undergone 20 years of additional patent activity.
Thanks for the link. Does any of this block competitors from selling a 2004-equivalent table saw with brake unencumbered by patents? I don't believe it can.
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Yeah this needs to be met with invalidation of patents. If the government mandates something, it has to be possible without patent infringement.
Commonly there would be a requirement to license the patent, rather than striking it down for the crime of being indispensable.
If they applied FRAND requirements to it, then I could see that working. So long as it's just a license for the patent holder to extort other companies I can't support it at all.
Give SawStop $10B and seize the patents under eminent domain.
Jesus that would certainly kill any future innovation.
“Hey if your product is so good that absolutely everyone needs to have it we’ll make sure you get no financial reward for developing it”
They have offered to give away the key patent... I get the sense people aren't reading the story here.
Yeah this guy gets it.
Regardless of your stance on whether the government should regulate x or y, it's important to understand that the people driving this law do not care about you or your fingers. This is rent seeking; someone who makes safe saws wants to sell more of their saws, and they compete with people who sell less safe saws. They are using the legal system to benefit their own bottom line.
After the real goal is established, reasons like "think of the children" or "think of the fingers" can be fabricated.
>it's important to understand that the people driving this law do not care about you or your fingers
People and consumer advocates can feasibly have motives other than greed.
Seatbelts is a good example: Volvo let any one use 3 point seatbelts so this could be standardised.
But what do the goals matter? The only relevant question I can see is 'are the fingers worth the rent?'
To that point, a regulation requiring "if and only if" per unit licensing is available at (much) less than the worth of the fingers should be a no brainier.
Given the relatively small market share that SawStop enjoys, you can only assume that most people feel like the fingers aren't really worth the rent.
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