Is this forum the right forum?

[panguero]

I saw another post on this site where a fellow asked about turning in ideas to Spyderco on knife design.Is it a bad idea to discuss potentially marketable knive constructs on this forum? Would Spyderco lose any benefit due to this being a public forum? Does Spyderco really want/need more ideas? Should I send ideas to R&D, or discuss them here? Lastly, could a competator "pick-off" a design concept here and claim it for their own, or claim "Public Domain" on it since it was posted on this forum?





Edited by - sharp1 on 2/19/2002 1:56:30 AM

[sal]

Hi Sharp1. I'll try to shed some light on the concepts presented.

Spyderco, as most companies, is always on the lookout for interesting, functional innovations.

Anyone wishing to submit ideas to Spyderco needs to contact Peter Jhones in the R&D / Legal dept first. There are a number of procedures that must be gone through first which protects both the person submitting the idea and Spyderco.

We cannot really look at any ideas without first handling the legal aspect. Many potential problems could arise and the legal end covers for that.

If an idea is submitted on a public forum, it is public domain. That means that anyone, competitor or not can lay claim to the design and produce it without difficulty.

Most ideas presented on our forum have not been really strong in terms of patents or defenses. Should one of you have an idea that has both sales and patent possibilities, you would be best served by presenting those ideas directly to Peter rather than just announce them on a public forum.

Hope that helps.

sal

[panguero]

Sal,
Yes. Thanks. <img src="spyder.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>

Edited by - sharp1 on 2/21/2002 12:59:45 PM