There was a thread posted that included a picture of the Wilkinson Swordmaster blades. The package had patent # 3071856 on it. This number rang a bell, so I looked it up again in google patents. This is a 1963 patent about teflon coating blades. The interesting thing is that Gillette and ASR also used this patent on lots of blades until the early 1980's. Gillette used it on almost everything, even Thins,Blues, and Super Blues from at least the early 70's, as well as their premium blades. ASR used it on many blades as well, and now at least some Wilkinsons as well.
I wonder if the companies traded or licensed this patent, or did the inventor an independent person or company (Dupont?) actually allow this patent to be sold to all these companies and collect the profits?
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3071856.pdf
Also, the inventor has a 1972 patent that was assigned to Gillette that creates a better way to put a teflon coating on a carbon steel blade by using a thin coating of rust (iron oxide).
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3652342.pdf
The inventor did not appear to assign the first patent.....
During that time period it was important to put the patent number on a product and take it off when the patent expired. These formalities lapsed in the 1990's. Indeed, many ASR products (and the DORCO imitators, as this was mentioned by ASR when it sued Dorco's USA joint venture a couple of years ago) had expired patents listed on the product and packaging, even recently. A common candidate was the patent mentioned above. There is a law that can allow damages to be collected if this is done. Some attorneys have recently started suing companies for this. Expect these expired patents to be taken off of the packages if they haven't been already.
I wonder if the companies traded or licensed this patent, or did the inventor an independent person or company (Dupont?) actually allow this patent to be sold to all these companies and collect the profits?
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3071856.pdf
Also, the inventor has a 1972 patent that was assigned to Gillette that creates a better way to put a teflon coating on a carbon steel blade by using a thin coating of rust (iron oxide).
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3652342.pdf
The inventor did not appear to assign the first patent.....
During that time period it was important to put the patent number on a product and take it off when the patent expired. These formalities lapsed in the 1990's. Indeed, many ASR products (and the DORCO imitators, as this was mentioned by ASR when it sued Dorco's USA joint venture a couple of years ago) had expired patents listed on the product and packaging, even recently. A common candidate was the patent mentioned above. There is a law that can allow damages to be collected if this is done. Some attorneys have recently started suing companies for this. Expect these expired patents to be taken off of the packages if they haven't been already.
