[Allen K. Littlefield]

Originally Posted by Jake Raby

I have 3 patents pending at the present, one of them is 20 months in, the other two are 13 and 16 months. I have yet to release one of the products thats covered by the newest patent, plan on doing that in January 15.

There's a big difference in the cost between a provisional patent, and the full patent application. Thus far we have had 3 office actions in the most mature application and it should be granted without any more clarifications with the examiner in 12-14 more months. The average so far has been from the final filing to the patent being issued a 33 month turnaround time, which seems to be fairly average.

The biggest ******************** for me has been covering every base and playing the strategic games of thinking of every single unique part of the "art" and how someone could crack it. On the IMS Solution I worked on that aspect of it every day for 3 solid months, then once the Patent Attorney got it in his hands it took two more weeks in the office to cover every base of not just the component, but also the method if installation and the method of oil delivery, all of which are a part of the patent. Thats on top of the 3,000 page Patent Search that cost us a ton of money to have carried out, but thats the most important part, as it finds possible conflicts with other types of art that may exist, but not be known about. We even had a conflict with a part used for a mowing deck with one of the applications, which had nothing to do with our component, but we had to answer the office action with the explanation. Its a real pain in the ass.

Meanwhile, some people maintain "patent pending" in their ads although their provisional patent was never turned into a full patent application, which is illegal. They don't care, they have no reputations in the industry and have nothing to lose, they wait till they get in trouble and close the business to save their asses. By doing this, they literally have nothing to lose, just run a bigger ad next time and find some new, fresher meat to market things to.

All these things are the cost of doing business, and the more we have to fight the other people the more things cost for everyone. We take this stuff seriously, having more power is why LN and I team up to create a power house that it takes a dumbass to try to fight.

They haven't seen anything yet. My latest engine and another little secret weapon that gets launched in early 2015 will really shake things up. Again.

Enough rambling. Back to the shop, my night just got started and the dyno is already warmed up.

Hmmm. Now I wonder if I should wait until late Jan. '15 to see what else is on? Since the tranny will be dropped for the bearing replacement I wonder if it would be a good time to add anything new from Raby????

As far as the "investment" argument goes I do not expect to sell the car for more than I paid for it someday but investing in my peace of mind to more enjoy the car so you banker types out there can stop shuddering... I find the earlier body style of the 986 to be very pleasing to me and is most reminiscent of the 550 and RSK Porsches. I plan on keeping the car for a long while.
AKL