New Oar Company???

[MadCox]

Just wondering-

Has anyone heard of these people? They just sent my club their link and seem really keen to sell us some oars.

www.zijie-sport.com

Any info from people who have used these oars would be appreciated! Can hurt to at least give them a look . . .

Heres to hoping that their oars are better than their english,
MC

[The Stig]

x

[scullerjonny]

Rule 60 - Fairness - Innovations
1) Significant innovations in equipment including, but not limited to, boats, oars, related equipment and clothing, must meet the following requirements before being approved for use in the sport of rowing:
a) be commercially available to all competitors (patents may not exclude the use by a team or a competitor)


Like I said previously in that thread, you can have a patent, you can exclude other boat/equip makers. You cannot exclude teams or competitors. Hypothetical...MegaOar suddenly designs the best oar blade shape in the world...better than everyone. They can patent that shape and then C2, Croker, Dreher, Empacher etc cannot produce oars with that blade shape. But, all competitors must be able to buy the MegaOar at a reasonable price.

[The Stig]

x

[gdoyle]

I think you can reconcile your differences by interpreting the "commercially available" language in the context of sports federation research that could be patented and then simply kept "in the family" and not available for sale to competitors from other countries.

That would be using the patent process to protect an athletic competitive advantage, rather than a commercial competitive advantage.

[scullerjonny]

I think you can reconcile your differences by interpreting the "commercially available" language in the context of sports federation research that could be patented and then simply kept "in the family" and not available for sale to competitors from other countries.

That would be using the patent process to protect an athletic competitive advantage, rather than a commercial competitive advantage.

Thats exactly what I've been saying all along every time this patent topic comes up. And it has multiple times over the years.

[FLorange]

There were no prices on their site. Anyone have feedback on the quality?

[frisky]

The press room is really insightful:

http://www.zijie-sport.com/NewsInfo.asp?id=11&menuid=3

Wolf, do you know the: U.S. women's "3-meter" long....?

[FLorange]

I'm sure that the "3-meter long" is something lost in translation...

[gdoyle]

or "suclling" for that matter.

[Estara]

Can you say scam? Looks like a good way to give away a lot of money for nothing!

[HPL1X]

MegaOar suddenly designs the best oar blade shape in the world...better than everyone. They can patent that shape and then C2, Croker, Dreher, Empacher etc cannot produce oars with that blade shape. But, all competitors must be able to buy the MegaOar at a reasonable price.

Not fully understanding patent law globally, if MegaOar only registers a US Patent, couldn't Empacher and Croker copy the design and sell it everywhere else in the world except the US?