Benchmade threatens Rogue Bladeworks to stop making Bailout scales

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Sharp & Fiery said:
It looks like since 2020 Benchmade has started patenting “ornamental design” of their knives…so I wouldn’t say that scalemakers are out of the woods yet.

A ridiculous patent if you ask me.
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An ornamental design patent is what keeps other companies from just copying your knife. This patent was meant to protect BM against clones and the like.
 
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NG VI said:
Some of us do not appreciate a major player in our hobby turning the cannon on an upstanding scale maker
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This is why I said just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Hinderer slapping someone with one because they did some half @$$ed hardness test and called them garbage? Okay. Going after someone that actually HELPS you sell more knives? Stupid. Just stupid.
 
NG VI said:
Some of us do not appreciate a major player in our hobby turning the cannon on an upstanding scale maker
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Asking a company to change two of its products that infringe on your patent doesn't seem like turning the cannon on them.

Isn't Rogue's entire product line BM scales? And BM doesn't seem to have a problem with any of those? I bet Rogue sells 100x as many Bugout scales.

Rogue will tweak their Bailout scales, BM will be satisfied and Rogue will go on selling its products.
 
Interesting....Rogue shows up nowhere in any business search. No address, no phone number. Even the C&D letter was sent to a gmail account. If a law firm can't find them, do they really exist? I highly doubt they manufacture anything, just another importer operating under the guise of a domestic company.
 
NG VI said:
This is actually one of the main reasons I settled on Kizer as my go-to, because they're possibly the highest effort knife company out there and I love them for it.
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Competition is a complex game. On the one hand, it is the enemy of narrow interests (the corporation or the laborer in the labor markets). And yet without it we are all in trouble and but for its effects we would still be living in mud huts with a life expectancy of 40 years of age. Love it or hate it. BM and its similarly situated interests will bow to competition and adjust or die. In the mean time, I am not a fan of overpaying for knives or otherwise.
 
Delta-v said:
An ornamental design patent is what keeps other companies from just copying your knife. This patent was meant to protect BM against clones and the like.
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I agree. Copying the knife. Not parts of it. Like aftermarked scales that are not the same material.
 
Weird move by Benchmade. I know numerous people who own multiple bugouts solely because of the many types of aftermarket scales available. Aftermarket parts, in general, help sales. If they go after all the scale manufacturers it will only hurt their sales. Its not like Benchmade is in the scale selling business like Hinderer.
 
NG VI said:
Some of us do not appreciate a major player in our hobby turning the cannon on an upstanding scale maker
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To be clear, as a long time Benchmade owner and fan of their products over the years, neither do I, but…

That said, my point was just that businesses do business things, to include protecting their products however they see fit for their interests and projections, not other businesses or consumer feelings. I was commenting on the rapid and superlative “taking up of arms” over something, dare I say, trivial to anyone other than Rogue and Benchmade, if we’re truly being honest to each other about it. The earth will continue to spin, and there are greater things, in my opinion, to become so incensed over. You said it yourself, it’s a hobby for us.

Yes, I do think it’s a silly thing to C&D over, but apparently BM doesn’t. I said it before during the Hinderer meltdown thread, tons of businesses C&D other entities ALL THE TIME, for their own reasons, not because they care how we’ll feel about it. I, personally, have no issue with what Rogue was doing, and, from what I understand, they make great aftermarket parts; but it’s not my decision, and of little consequence to me directly because I have no dog in the actual fight, yet lots of folks seem to take these things personally who also have no dog in the actual fight. I don’t even have a model of the particular Benchmade they’re being gagged on, but as I understand it’s not the only model, or even style for THAT model, they produce.

Do I like seeing small businesses thrive? Of course I do. Heck, I’d love nothing more that Rogue to start making whole knives of their own and skyrocket to even greater success. That’d potentially be another fabulous addition to our little niche world. But, in my opinion, it’s not Benchmade’s duty as a knife making company to provide them a base to launch from, even though that’s exactly what has happened for allllll of the aftermarket companies, not just Rogue. Would any of them be in business at all without production knives to build parts for? I really have no idea. I have had plenty of Benchmades over the years, some of which I chose to apply aftermarket bits to, and many others I didn’t. That said, I don’t ever recall buying any knife exclusively based on knowing there were aftermarket parts available to change it. Is it a nice option? Sure. But is it Benchmade’s responsibility to make sure companies making aftermarket parts for their base products succeed? Not in my opinion. Is it a serious business consideration to any business that perhaps the sales of aftermarket parts might actually help their own product sales? Of course it is. But it’s not mine, or yours to make. Although we see things as a “community,” in reality, it’s business.

It sucks for Rogue, truly, and if I were BM, I probably wouldn’t have worried about it, but I don’t know their rationale, only they do. I also don’t necessarily subscribe to the “Here’s yet ANOTHER example of the empire putting its boot on the common man just trying to get by” rhetoric because of it. As others have said, Rogue, and many other companies have been making aftermarket parts for LOTS of brands of popular knives and plenty of other things with no such action taken, they apparently had a reason for this, again, in their own interest. It’s the gamble of building a business based on the product of another. I do not think it automatically implies the crushing doom of such enterprises. I can still go buy a K&N air filter or an Edelbrock carburetor for my car if I want to. I don’t think any of the car companies have squashed them yet.

Another question, which I think I also addressed in the Hinderer thread, is: Who put this C&D out to the community at large for commentary, and what was the motivation for doing so?
 
Or maybe Benchmade only owns the ornamental patent of this one knife, so they can't take action on other aftermarket scales, and they decided to make an example of it.
 
I don’t know much about patent law. I also don’t know exactly what aspects of BM’s design are patented. Based on what I can see in the C&D in the OP, I can only assume there’s some part of the design that’s copied in Rogue’s scales that BM feels is infringing on one or more patents they own. We also don’t know if any conversations were had prior to this C&D, or any other circumstances leading up to BM feeling they had no other recourse. I don’t like how it looks on BM, but we really can’t and shouldn’t cast judgment on either side until we know all the facts. Them’s my thoughts on the matter.
 
patrickguignot said:
What's innovative in this patent?
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Here's the key part from the patent description: "The broken lines are provided for environmental purposes only and form no part of the claimed design."

Look at the drawings: Everything except the front part of the handle is in broken lines, and thus not protected by the patent! That's all they could or wanted to get past the examiner, likely in view of the prior art citations.
 
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