Q. Have you tried offering your new padlocks to padlock manufacturers?
A. Yes.  To every padlock manufacturer with a web site more than a few times.   Mechanical innovation, increasing profits or targeting new groups of consumers are concepts they simply do not understand.  Obsessive cosmetic changes to 120 year old padlocks they love.  Go figure.

Q.  Are you saying 139 mechanically different padlocks or 139 claims for just a few different padlocks?
A.  No.  Each padlock is mechanically unique and lock a variety of new and typical uses in different ways and many are new  padlock uses in need of any lock.   For example I have other ways to mechanically lock a Whiting roll up door.   While each is mechanically different all are counted as one for this one application.   None of my padlocks or padlock uses rely on visual changes.   Visual changes are for those who lack basic mechanical abilities.

Q. Can you tell us some new uses for your padlocks and their new uses?
A. No.  Think over one hundred new unique padlocks and padlock uses for auto, business, cable/pneumatic/ ball valve lockouts, cables, chains, children, communications, computers, guns, home, hospitals, industry, lockers (employee, gym, school), long haul trucks, religious, roll up truck doors, safety and seasonal.    None of them are design changes to this padlock.

Q. Do you believe some lock companies are misguided when it comes to padlock innovation or do they just lack a strategic business plan?
A.  Yes to both.  These are very tough economic times.  Relying on minor cosmetic changes to a century old padlock while refusing to shift away from "tried and true" is not being attuned to basic consumer wants and needs.  Can you say management failure?

comments: Tue, 02 Sep 2008 I have to admit that those shackles certainly seem very similar to me, but the threshold of "novelty" for design patents is pretty low. There's no functional difference between a lock with a round shackle and one with an octagonal cross-section - but functional difference is exactly what design patents are NOT intended to protect. Clearly, a round shackle is different visually from one with eight sides, and perhaps that's a difference which means something to a padlock manufacturer. Or, more likely, they hope that it will distinguish their goods from their competitors', so that a consumer will see a lock with an eight-sided shackle hanging on a rack with all the round-shackled locks and say, "I like that company's locks, so I'll buy that one." It's not unlike the differences in design of keys for locks - the punched rectangular top doesn't work any better than a round one, but it makes it instantly recognizable as a Kwickset. (Design patent and trade dress/product configuration protection kind of overlap, here) Design patents have their place in the general scheme of protection, but there's a reason why they're less expensive, shorter lived, and easier to get. They just cover a visual difference from what was done before, and for some people, that's enough.