I don't know what BM's license agreement with M&W is. My understanding is that M&W did not sell the thing outright, but has licensed it to BM. It would not surprise me if that license agreement includes some period of exclusivity, perhaps one to three years. Obviously, BM paid M&W for that exclusivity priviledge. BM may have also bought an option to renew that priviledge (for an additional price) when it expires. This would be a sound investment on BM's part: buy exclusivity for a couple of years and also buy an option to renew that exclusivity. After the first couple of years, see how it's going. If the Axis lock is a good seller and if the fact that it's a BM exclusive is worth the price, then renew. For M&W, it's money in the bank right now, nice royalty checks each month, and the promise of more money in a couple of years if their product is as good as they think it is. It'd be a true win-win deal.
Again, I have no knowledge of BM and M&W's agreements, but I can speak generally and guess that BM paid M&W an up-front fee, agreed to specific details about how the product would be marketed, advertised, etc. (obviously, M&W did not want the fact that this is their invention hidden). After that, my guess is that BM pays M&W a fixed royalty for every knife sold and may also pay a continuation fee for every year that the contract continues, plus have the option to renew that exclusivity after a certain time.
The biggest problem for a custom maker to license it is simply the legal costs associated with contracts, etc. If you're planning on making ten or fifteen pieces per year, it's not worth hiring a lawyer to read the contract for you. After the initial novelty wears off (and after any exclusivity agreement they may have with BM expires), my guess is that M&W will look the other way if any custom maker wants to make a few fine pieces per year. The other problem with licensing something like this to a custom maker is that when M&W licenses it to someone, they imply, legally, approval of that maker's implimentation of their design. With their approval can also come their liability. So, if they license a custom maker, he makes a poor version of their product, it fails and hurts someone, that person can actually sue M&W (and probably will since most custom makers don't have the big bucks that M&W (after getting all those fees and royalties from BM) will.
On the other hand, while the concept is rather simple, the devil is in the details and this is complicated little lock to make and make well.
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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.4cs.net/~gollnick
