Jim,
It's not about either party having the right to market the product.
Of course they do and for that matter, any and everybody who now thinks they might want to jump into the bumper marketing game is free to do so. It's a free country and a free market system. But that's not what this is about.
It's about taking advantage of and capitalizing on the interest created by another AZer's product. It has become an obvious pattern.
It's not a matter of coincidence or bad timing. It's done deliberately. This is how Lee does business and anyone who's been on this forum for any length of time has seen it time and time again. There's no law against what he's doing and neither party will achieve success in securing a patent. Is it right what he's doing? It's legal, but is it right?
This is the crux of the debate.
Neither you nor I have a 'horse in this race', so to speak, unless you want to consider that WE ALL have a horse in this race and that filly's name is 'Integrity'. From where I sit, it's about how we, as a community, do business and how respectful we are of another's efforts.
Lee can argue that he's had his bumpers in the works for years now yet he cranks out 55-cavity molds daily. Why now? Why not a month ago, 6 months ago or even 6 months from now. It's simple. The interest in brown bumpers is peaking as we speak and now's the time to move.
It was the very same thing with the tip-press. The timing was perfect. The talk of 'milk duds' was all over the forum. John had created the interest in the tip-press and Lee took advantage of that interest.
I don't know of any law against that, but is it right?
My position on the issue should be obvious, I don't like it. It's blatant disrespect for a fellow AZer for the sake of a few lousy bucks.
"The integrity of the game will be no more than the collective integrity of it's patrons".
