Z-Man Lures is awarded chatterbait patent

Can someone explain to me what this accomplishes?

http://www.sportfishingmag.com/news/news...1000083334.html

could mean a lot of royalties from other companies if they are found to be in violation of the patent.

It means that a lot of companies are about to get ceast and desist letters (if they haven't already). It also probably means that a lot of companies will probably be sued for lost profits.

Other companies who want to keep making chatterbaits will have to get a license from Z-Man and have to pay royalties.

Hate to say it, but protecting my inventions is the reason I am patenting my lure designs. I know knock offs are the norm in the tackle industry, but I have spent too much blood, sweat, tears, and money working on my design to not protect it. I am sure the folks at Z-Man feel the same way. I know Zoom has many patents and they DO enforce them.

And yes, I am an attorney.

This means all the copycats of the original Chatterbait will have to quit selling their illegal copies of the lure. So, ZMan will have a monopoly, as the creator and patent holder of this style of lure, which is only right. Like Fish Killer said, they may demand royalties from other companies for copying their lure, so we'll just have to see where this goes. I applaud them for protecting their lure design, which too much copying (i.e. stealing) of lure designs goes on in this business. Congratulations ZMan!

It will be interesting to see what develops...

You meant cease and desist, right?

Yes. It has been a long day.....

Can the Patent be enforced retroactively? I believe Gene Larew and Zoom got into it years ago with the salt impregnation technology. I understood that Gene Larew had the patent.

That sucks ZMan chatterbaits suck! The pheonix ones are the only ones i like

I thought Mr. Blitz was the first chatterbait, but maybe I am wrong. I like there blade better. Then I saw Nicholas came out with the exact mold.

It will be difficult for Z-man to inforce the patent unless competition is not able to show evidence where they improved upon the exisiting patent. I think most bait companies have been able to produce a much better working product than the original chatterbait. Companies like booyah have a much better product!

I wil have to review the patent and the preferred embodiments it protects. FWIW in my LAY opinion, using better components/ finishes is not enough to get around the patent. I also don't know if using a different shaped blade will do either, just have to read the patent to see what it protects...

It doesn't accomplish much other than Z-man can say they invented it. If the knocks offs are just designed with a minuit difference or they're able to show evidence where they improved upon the exisiting patent then it is not infringing on the original patent. Also if one of the other big company's can show where they had developed one or a prototype before chatterbait developed theirs then they can keep on producing them also and make their patent null and void. I designed/invented several Nitrous Oxide Systems and nozzles designs for professional drag racing and have had to deal with this kind of stuff in the past. So in a nutshell not much will change. There maybe some letters sent back and forth but I doubt much will change.

im with jt larkin, the z man baits are not good qaulity . the blades fall of and the hooks are not sharp. i like the phenix very well.

Thats what I'm guessing, the eaker shaker was around long before z-man, if anything the chatterbait is a copy of it.

I don't care for their hooks on them.

i think a lot of people will go buy all of a stores inventory of the good baits, out of fear of the bait not being produced anymore and it will leave a ton of the zman baits sitting on the racks for a long time, this may not have been a good idea for them

So, does this mean a jig producer can't sell a jig and then market a a a a blade to go along with it?
Or even someone marketing a blade to fit on a jig? It seems like the jig could not present a problem but the blade designed to fit on a jig might.

<GRIN>
This is going to be fun to watch. I’m betting that Z-Man is not going to gain much from this patent. Getting a patent is not the hard part, having Federal courts uphold the patent is the trick.


TFP

Spot on ^^^^

TFP

the original chatterbaits were made here. now they are made over seas and thats when the quality went to [censored]!!!!!!!!! there are other co. building better baits in USA and selling more than zman i figure , so that is why they are doing this . just my opinion.

It is a utility patent & that is much more enforceable than a design patent. IE, the way it works vs how it looks.

One of the reasons soft plastics are copied constantly w/ very little or no changes - it's a design patent issue.

Really comes down to the lawyers, I'm guessing smaller companies making knock-offs that get a letter, will have to stop due to the cost of fighting it in court. Versions like Booyah w/ a definite change (their flexible cable hook) & larger pockets will be fine.

Since we're talking about lititgation, that was way more than my .02cents worth, more like a billable $22.02!

Sounds kinda like the Humminbird/Lowrance situation with side imaging.

Z-Man has a weekly infomercial that will cover this I'm sure......the name of the show escapes me.......ahhh I remember now, Fishing University...lol...

When I was taking IP classes in school, they taught us that you can only really enforce a patent if the idea or design is not yet "public knowledge", aka, is still kind of a secret, hasn't been on the market yet. These lures have been on the market for a long time, the competition had plenty of time to build off this design before the patent was issued. Will this be enforcable at all?

I am no expert on patent law and IP, but that is what I remember from school.

Good for them!

I met the old man at the classic who invented the chatterbait when he was still making them in his upstairs spare bedroom. Demand outweighed capacity and he partnered with someone to mass produce them. Still have a few originals.

Ya poor quality, and it stinks that they got the pattent. Hopefully other companys will gett smart and make a small difference and get their own patternts.

I liked the hooks they put on the Gambler version. Don't see it anymore.

I was told by the folks at Phenix Jigs, that the patent is not necessarily on the design, but on the action (the way the blade bangs into the head, when retrieved)
Phenix has stopped building their version, but are working on other designs, and I'm sure others are as well....
the quality of the Z-Man has fallen so low, I'm not sure the patent will help them very much anyway