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AFCK w/oval hole
- Thread starter kyotimoon
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The hole was made oval after Spyderco and/ or Spyderco fans objected to Benchmade's use of the round hole. The issue has been resolved behind the scenes, and now Benchmade again uses the round hole on some of its models.
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Errr, get your facts straight. Round hole was licensed by Benchmade for AFCK production. Then they decided to go oval. After Spyderco's patent on the round hole expired Benchmade started using it again.
yablanowitz
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Close, but no cigar. It was originally licenced from Spyderco partly as a patent and partly as a trademark. When Benchmade failed to credit Spyderco to the degree specified in the contract (the boxes were marked but not the knives themselves), the contract was cancelled and Benchmade went to the oval hole. Note that the oval hole was actually covered by the original patent, but it was not a registered Spyderco trademark. That was allowed by Spyderco, as Sal was less concerned about protecting the patent than the trademark. Several years later, after the original patent expired, Benchmade resumed using the Spyderco registered trademark round hole. After a few weeks of rather heated discussions on the forums, Sal announced that the two companies had reached an agreement and asked that we let the matter drop.
yablanowitz
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That information came from one of the very few posts Sal has made on the subject, answering a direct question from me. I've never seen the contract either, but I did buy one of the Benchmade Ascent models with a round opening hole that was clearly labeled on the box that the hole was used under license from Spyderco, but there is nothing on the knife itself to acknowledge Spyderco's trademark. From the sound of what Sal posted, Benchmade had agreed to mark the blades and didn't. When he pointed it out, they said they would and still didn't. Eventually he got fed up and cancelled the contract.
The post was made a few years ago, but I believe it was on this forum.
The post was made a few years ago, but I believe it was on this forum.
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Lolz. You got served.
My post was factually correct. I remembered the gist of the brouhaha from a couple years back, but couldn't recall the exact specifics, hence my intentionally vague wording.
Might as well get YOUR facts straight before you go and accuse other folks of being wrong.
Neener neener!
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Let's look at this again:
"The hole was made oval after Spyderco and/ or Spyderco fans objected to Benchmade's use of the round hole."
That is also correct. Both Spyderco and Spyderco fans objected to the use of the round hole after Benchmade failed to fulfill the terms of their contract. Benchmade did not change to the oval hole because they felt like it. They were compelled to do so. There was a pretty good-sized "internet dustup" about the issue, which led Sal to come out with a few details of the arrangement. He later told the community that the matter had been settled, and the issue died away.
If you're gonna call somebody out, at least make sure you know what you're talking about first.
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Switch from round hole to oval hole happened back in mid-90's. Name one forum where people railed up against Benchmade back then? There were none. Use common sense.
All the complaining started after patent expiration, when Benchmade switched back to round hole.
All the complaining started after patent expiration, when Benchmade switched back to round hole.
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What I find curious about the licensing/marking agreement is that the box of my round-hole 812HS (from around 1999?) does not have any sticker mentioning Spyderco on it, nor does it look like it ever did. In photos I have seen such stickers on other boxes of the same period, also mentions in some old ads. It all gets quite confusing sometimes.
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Dagnabbit. You're right- my last post was wrong. However, my original post was more or less accurate- minus the fans part.
Curse you, you win this round. Just remember though, nobody likes a wiseacre.
And it's not nice to make fun of stupid people. I can't help it if I was dropped on my head a lot as a child.
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Same here. Some of my AFCK boxes have stickers while others don't. But I never saw an AFCK with blade markings other then regular ones.
I can see how Benchmade not placing stickers on boxes could be a violation of the contract. It's the blade markings theory I have doubts about.
yablanowitz
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My Ascent from earlier than that had it printed directly on the box. The stickers came later in a feeble effort to salvage the contract. It wasn't enough. The brouhaha from a couple years back is an entirely seperate issue from the original AFCK contract.
AFAIK the only markings were on the box, that it was licensed from spydie, i know i had a 800 prototype at one time and it didnt have any markings on the blade concerning the hole, i also have had 10 or 12 differnt variations of the 800, none had any markings on the blade concerning the round hole, & most but not all did have the box sticker, IIRC all the 800s made thru the late 90s to maybe '99 or '00 had the round hole, then they came out with the 804 and 814 which had the oval, i dont think they made a lotta the 804s as about that time they came out with the axis AFCK and seemed to focus more on them, point being if its an 800 it has a round hole.