Predator Patent expired??

[Mensabum]

One would think with the prices they charge for their products, they could pay their fees.
Let it be known I'm no predator hater. I appreciate their contributions to the game that continues to this day. Perhaps this is simply a bookkeeping oversight.
I just found it odd when reading thru their patent apps.
Check it out:
McCarty and Titus - US # 6,162, 128.

 

[Poolhall60561]

What specifically was protected under this patent?
Seems like everything they produce is being copied anyway.

 

[Not Dead Ted]

One would think with the prices they charge for their products, they could pay their fees.
Let it be known I'm no predator hater. I appreciate their contributions to the game that continues to this day. Perhaps this is simply a bookkeeping oversight.
I just found it odd when reading thru their patent apps.
Check it out:
McCarty and Titus - US # 6,162, 128.

For a patent that ends up becoming obsolete or not commercially viable, it is common practice to let it expire by not paying the fees, which are expensive. In any event, the coverage period of 20 years is about up.

 

[td873]

It was one of the low deflection patents, looks like the original 314 era. It would be expired already anyway even if they didn't pay the fees. That whole family of patents was held in a trust, assigned to Predator and abandoned around the same time.

Who knows why the switched gears, but I figure it doesn't have anything to do with whether predator could/could not pay their fees. They paid the first two maintenance periods. I suspect they moved on from 314 technology and maybe had probably better/newer patents. I don't remember the timeline, but 314 was old news in 2014?

US6162128A - Billiard/pool cue - Google Patents

A ferrule mounted on one end of a billiard/pool cue shaft has greater compressibility than the compressibility of the shaft to compress on impact of a tip mounted on the ferrule with a ball to absorb a portion of impact forces and to provide easy outward flexure with minimal buckling of the end...

patents.google.com

-td

 

[Zerksies]

It could of been refiled under a new name. I would think predator group.