Today the infamous "Electronic Gun Patents" expire and become public domain.
Today the infamous "Electronic Gun" patents expire and become public domain. That means that the technological concepts covered in them are free for anyone to use as they wish without having to pay any royalties to anyone.
Whilst there never was one "microswitch patent" as commonly claimed by people discussing the subject on the internet, there were at least 6 electronic gun patents (and a large number of continuations) which have been the most fought over and costly patents in the history of paintball.
Those patents, 5,881,707; 5,967,133; 6,035,843; 6,474,326; 6,637,421; 7,100,593 and any continuations were based upon the work originally filed on January 16th 1996. 20 Years ago today.
The original patent can be seen and read here
Since 1995 a patent lasts for 20 years from the date of it's application filing. So as of tomorrow the technology taught in those patents is public domain and free for everyone to use without requiring any royalties.
Over the last 20 years the Intellectual Property (IP) taught in those patents was hotly disputed. Inventorship was challenged, novelty was challenged, prior art was found and many companies spent huge amounts on legal fees.
Some companies chose to pay and absorbed the royalty cost as part of business. Others paid and passed the costs on to the end consumer. Some companies chose not to produce electronic guns and others redesigned their products to try and get outside of the patents or simply chose not to release products. There were many court battles fought and overall the lawyers made a lot of money from the fights.
There are rumours that the SP/WDP lawsuit cost over $4,000,000
It cost some companies dearly, in financial terms, in brand reputation, maybe even their existence, and it made others significant sums of money. It made the existence of some small companies, like board manufacturers difficult because they had to pay the same royalty on a circuit board as gun manufacturers did on a full gun.
The group of patents were originally owned by Smart Parts, with WDP acquiring some ownership rights due to their huge lawsuit with Smart Parts. The group (adding in Dye at one point due to claims on another patent US 5613483, since abandoned and now also public domain) then pooled their technology and licensed it to others in the industry.
After Smart Parts went bankrupt, KEE Action Sports ended up acquiring the "electronic gun" patents and continued licensing them, and then recently (and for only a short while) due to their acquisition GI ended up owning all of the IP.
That is all now public domain. It's going to be interesting to see what that means for the future.
- Will it mean more start up electronic gun companies?
- Will existing companies be more tempted to enter the electronic gun market?
- Will aftermarket board companies make a comeback?
- Will it mean more affordable electronic gun products (especially at the lower end where the royalty was a higher percentage of the cost of making the gun...)
