Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

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fabricemagic
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Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby fabricemagic » November 12th, 2019, 12:06 am

Hi ,
I 've just seen one more hitech comp. Claiming that they invented a new invisibility tech
but in matter of fact ,
some of this tech are coming out from the magic business and some of them are actually patented,
I just saw a Fiedler /Tenyo Patent sold as a new hitech systen.

Why nobody take a serious action against this hitech comp? Some Fiedler /Tenyo system still under patent nowdays.
This things already happen recently also whit others efx example a kind of pepper ghost efx and also a Steinmeyer version on it (I think ),
Someone is selling out there our basic pepper ghost technique and others as an" hologram efx"....unbelivable ....and they sell it as a new technology....
we " as magic comunity don't do nothing, why? Even some patents owner don't do nothing,why?
I am very upset about this,
Whats your opinion?
Thanks
Fabrice

Tom Moore
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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Tom Moore » November 12th, 2019, 5:15 am

Lubor did not invent the lenticular screen, nor was he the first person to use lenticular screens to hide or disguise things (his patent acknowledges this) his patent relates only to the use of that particular method to make objects vanish as part of a magic trick and seems to consider the stripey background to be an integral part of his patent application. Any attempt to use that patent against the current click bait "innovation" of a shield that sort of vaguely makes a person go a bit fuzzy in highly specific situations for a few seconds would be pointless.
"Ingenious" - Ben Brantley: New York Times

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Chris Aguilar
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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Chris Aguilar » November 14th, 2019, 10:52 am

fabricemagic wrote:Hi ,
I 've just seen one more hitech comp. Claiming that they invented a new invisibility tech
but in matter of fact ,
some of this tech are coming out from the magic business and some of them are actually patented,
I just saw a Fiedler /Tenyo Patent sold as a new hitech systen.
...
Whats your opinion?
Thanks
Fabrice

If this is the patent you're referencing:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20030054894A1/en

Then it's a moot point, as Fiedler has allowed it to expire back in 2011.

2011-11-15 FP Expired due to failure to pay maintenance fee

Effective date: 2011 09 23

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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Jonathan Townsend » November 14th, 2019, 6:13 pm

Are any of your tricks out there being sold?
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

fabricemagic
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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby fabricemagic » November 15th, 2019, 4:48 pm

Hi Chris,
The patent now it's owned by Tenyo ,
Anyway expired or not is not correct claim something that is not true and don't give credit to his creator,
Not?

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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Chris Aguilar » November 15th, 2019, 7:07 pm

fabricemagic wrote:Hi Chris,
The patent now it's owned by Tenyo ,
Anyway expired or not is not correct claim something that is not true and don't give credit to his creator,
Not?

If the patented material is expired, then anyone can use it without condition. Not sure how that constitutes "ripping off" that requires "Action". It's status quo and simply how the system is set up.

You might not like the way the system works, but there's nothing actionable here.

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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Tom Moore » November 16th, 2019, 3:20 pm

and don't give credit to his creator,


Lubor did not invent the lenticular lens / screen / material and was not the first person to use a lenticular lens to hide things.
"Ingenious" - Ben Brantley: New York Times

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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Richard Kaufman » November 16th, 2019, 5:37 pm

Tom, who was?
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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby fabricemagic » November 16th, 2019, 7:10 pm

Tom ,
It's easy say "Lubor was not the first " ,
So,
Who was the first using that system in that way?
Thaking ideas after have seen already something done
and may be taking inspiration it' s easy my friend Lubor started from zero,
A real genius.
Waiting a patent expir. And claim to be the inventor of that tech. Is not correct,
I am sure Lubor 's family and Tenyo can do something on this.

I remeber perfectly on a Sharpe 's book "optical illusions" (or something like this ) that Sharpe described this lens system but nobody before Lubor used it in that way,

Of course Lubor did' t invented that lens but he first discoved or marketed it to be used in that way.
Mr .Kaufman ,
Why nobody do a book about Lubor Fiedler ?that will be amazing,
I have the Lubor video vhs or dvd but a book will be amazing,
He still a mistery person.
Mr.Kaufman I love your books.
Thanks
Fabrice

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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Chris Aguilar » November 17th, 2019, 3:33 am

fabricemagic wrote:Tom ,
It's easy say "Lubor was not the first " ,
So,
Who was the first using that system in that way?
Thaking ideas after have seen already something done
and may be taking inspiration it' s easy my friend Lubor started from zero,
A real genius.
Waiting a patent expir. And claim to be the inventor of that tech. Is not correct,
I am sure Lubor 's family and Tenyo can do something on this.
...

If this is in regard to use of a expired patent, then it's doubtful (and probably expensive, time consuming and pretty much useless) to seek legal recourse.

If Lubor's family and Tenyo want to do "something" about it, then that's their business, not yours or ours. Why bang on about it here?

Are you expecting us to care enough to poke our noses into the business practices of others over an expired patent? Perhaps there's someone you want us to shame/shun?

No thanks.

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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Tom Moore » November 17th, 2019, 4:54 am

Richard Kaufman wrote:Tom, who was?

Lubor's Patent itself states that these things already existed and had been done before. My reading of the patent is that it is very specifically related to using a stripey background to improve the effect. Lenticular lenses and screens have been around for over 100 years (early film cameras used them to create the first versions of colour movies) and those giant reverse projection TV screens that were popular in the 80's used them to pick just two random examples. Lubor found an existing thing & made some improvements to it specifically to create a magic trick; he was a great clever inventor with many wonderful innovations but inventing lenticular lenses was not one of them.
"Ingenious" - Ben Brantley: New York Times

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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Bob Farmer » November 17th, 2019, 11:14 am

Intellectual property litigation is extremely expensive. Racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal bills is common. When weighed against the risk and the reward, magic tricks are not worth the investment. Within the magic community, it is better to shame the thief.

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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Richard Kaufman » November 17th, 2019, 1:15 pm

Thanks, Tom. I am well aware that lenticulars existed long before Lubor. But I had never seen a clear lenticular that produced the illusion of invisibility when something is behind it. Lubor may have patented the stripped background, but in fact it's not necessary to the Tenyo trick in which it's used. The regular (small rectangular) Lubor's Lens can make the middles of your fingers apparently disappear. So that was my question: did anyone use a clear lenticular lens to make something appear invisible before Lubor?
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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Tom Moore » November 17th, 2019, 2:27 pm

In the context of an outright magic trick... no

However almost by definition every lens makes things invisible - they take an image at their focal point and reproduce it on their surface. Every theatre spotlight, telescope has objects between the image source and the display surface which are rendered “invisible” because they aren’t situated at the focal point of the lens.

Literally every single person who has handled a lenticular lens (including those cheep flat plastic magnifiers) has at some point noticed their ability to make something invisible at certain focal lengths. I seriously doubt the Lubor Patent would withstand any serious legal challenge.

His genius was in spotting a technology in an unrelated field and spinning it in to a magic trick.
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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Richard Kaufman » November 17th, 2019, 3:50 pm

Thanks.
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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby Chris Aguilar » November 17th, 2019, 6:13 pm

I guess Fabrice is once again trying to stoke outrage that he solicited (and failed get ) here on the forums two years ago.

If he thinks "action should be taken" (legally that is) I encourage him to try that (beyond useless kvetching on an internet forum) and report back to us with his results.

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Re: Why nobody take action against the big hitech company ripping off patented magic?

Postby fabricemagic » November 24th, 2019, 6:30 am

Probably the Tenyo's 4d surprise (year 2011)
Still under patent,
Usually a patent's life it's 14 years if not refreshed .
I love magic and of course I am not happy when things like this happen.
I admire Lubor 's creativity .


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