Fantastic news from 365Drills. PATENT FULLY GRANTED.

[365drills]

Great news today. After five years and £10,000 in expense a full force patent is granted for the PORSADRILL core diamond drilling system.

Not only does that STOP anyone from blatently copying our original idea from 2005 BUT it allows us to negotiate hard with retail.

They cant just grab our UK idea and slip off to the far east to copy it. It also helps secure UK jobs. And as we take this to retail its another string to the bow.

We have been persued RELENTLESSLY by other drill bit manufacturers (no names on here) who were waiting to see if our claims held water. If this had failed then our unique and now PATENTED idea would have been ripped to bits by bigger companies based overseas.

Now we have the paperwork we can protect our IP. And ensure complete enforcement.




The wheels of justice turn very slowly. But they do turn.....





PORSADRILL. PROTECTED BY PATENT

[grumpygrouter]

Well done and congratulations.

[365drills]

As you can imagine the mood is celabratory here. We have had a rotten month.
Wont go into details but the factory we shared in Sheffield went bust.
I am having to relocate the factory down south to Hoddesdon. Moving 2nd July.

As anyone knows moving is disruptive and expensive. Got to have all the machinery sent down with special equipment for commercial moving.
To keep costs down we shared the factory with 10 small companies. Out of the 10 companies EIGHT were not paying their bills on time.
So the management went bankrupt and shut down. Grrrr.
Although the Patent news is good and lifts the spirits the agro of the relocation is still very real.

Please note we have produced enough stock for 2 months. So no chance of running out even if the production machines stop running. But we will get our move done quickly.

I think they call it Karma or something (ying and yang) all that.

[Dave]

Excellent news for 365 Rich... same about the move but might be a good one for the future.

[russ1980]

Well done.Just been looking at you site and will hopefully be purchasing some next week.

[Bri]

Nice one Rich that's great news

[tommyzooom]

Great news Richard, Have one on me..........

[enduro]

Well done...You going to double the prices now.

[CJ CERAMICS]

excellent products fully deserved patent nice one.

[Saltire69]

Well done Richard. Great product and reasonable prices.

[365drills]

Cheerrrrrss. YEAH! PRICES TO DOUBLE!!! (Bathroom Fitters Kit £99 plus delivery!!)

[whitebeam]

Well done Richard, it's what I use..

What happens to all those copy types on fleabay though??

[Ken Bruty]

Congratulations Richard, a great result and 40 mins up the road from where I am too.

[doug boardley]

great news Richard, just goes to show that hard work and perseverance can pay off

[timeless john]

365365

[user123]

That's really impressive Richard, I used to translate patents for patent agents (what a pain that was) and do know what a lengthy and strict process it is, let alone costly. So very very well done, and I second Dave's notion, that a move most likely means good news, more obvious when the stress of it has passed.

[365drills]

Yep I know what you mean about the move!

And the stress will be here until end of July. Small example:

Old Martha one of our High Frequency RF welding machines is being readied for the move.
She has a rather delicate valve inside which if shaken will need to be replaced at the minor cost of £2K !!

One of our more delicate machines being relocated.


Me in the glory days stamping out goods on Martha!

Once all the machinery is down and installed then I can breath a sigh of relief.
Didnt realise that you had to have a certificite to drive a 7.5T truck these days.
Tried to hire one and nooo. Hmm.

[365drills]

PS for those who are intertested in technical stuff the patent is reproduced online.
Not very exciting stuff for most!



Full document can be found here: 365Drills Granted Patent



But hey some like to find out about technical things. And at least this one achieved a patent approved status...

[Tabby Cranks]

Well done on the patent. what exactly is patented though? Do you actually make your core drill's here in the UK? if so, double well done.

[jay]

Well done Rich well earned

[365drills]

Tabby - You asked: What does the patent protect? Its the METHOD as well as the APPARATUS that is covered. Back then in 2005 when there was NOTHING on the market other than expensive pilot driven rigs - we worked out the principles of removing the pilot drill and set about machining a prototype via CAD drawings and CNC machinery.



YES - UK COMPANY!


Above the now familar drill plate (in prototype stage) This photo was taken in December 2005 !!




This is the CAD documents we produced. Again ALL of this is done in England.


Even Dragons Den Peter Jones thought it was a good idea when we presented in (without patent granted) to them.
Thats him trying it out. [note they said the market was to niche for them to develop - so chose not to invest]

Its all produced here in the UK. We even EXPORT to countries like Turkey.



This company above based in Turkey buys it from us in England and then re-exports to Germany, France, Israel, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq and Jordan permanently and continue to add new markets.

We will continue with UK production. I cant tell you the pain we have with customs exports documents. If there is ever a messge to the Goverment its to HELP us export by having a regional expert to guide us with paperwork. Not just let us do it wrong and then charge us £45 for every single document. [Exports to Turkey require and ADR.1 form] expensive at £45 each and often required for each carton, not each pallet. Grrr.

[Dave]

So the Patent is for the guide plate and the hole cutters..? So does this mean similar ones now cannot be sold.?

Just to make it clearer as to what it covers.

[365drills]

Good question Dave. The patent covers:
1) The equipment [drill plate, drill guide]
2) The method. [pushing against a surface, drilling through one appature, or a pluarity of appatures]

Patent: GB2434558

Wait a minute (I hear you thinking) havent I seen something similar / other products?

Since our patent application [PATENT PENDING] the five years have seen products creep into the market place.
From 20 July 2011 [PATENT GRANTED] we can start the process of patent enforcement by contacting those companies.

Two future options:
1) Prevent the sale of other items that infringe our idea.
2) Licence them to carry on.

For the remainder of 2011 it will be a process of contacting any company who may be in breach. Informing them (they may not know about a patent). Then advising on what we want them to do. Obviously having the patent will prevent blatant copying but also subtle forms of copying too. We will just have to see what the next 20 years brings by way of infringement.


PATENT: GB2434558

__________________________________________________ ________________________

For those of you (not already bored!!) and want to read a bit more about patents.
What happens in the world of the patent office?
So you are running a GOLF COURSE (bear with me) and you want the perfect hole into the putting green.
Cue the invention of the grass hole cutter jig. Time for a patent on this right?
This is true: You can read the document here: Document
And it is refused because our diamond drilling rig performs the same techincal function.
Patent for golf hole cutter - Refused

Basically our Granted Patent is seeing off other ideas.

So the question is then: Would anyone try to copy a product with a patent? Guess we will see!

[Dave]

Or in english.. just the guide plate..

[Tabby Cranks]

Can I still use my jig I've made out of an off cut tile?

[365drills]

Whhhattttt thats an INFRINGEMENT someone call the

[365drills]

Just made a little YouTube Video for our legal section on 365Drills. Spelling out the IP rights that we own.
(I do love making my little you tube videos!!) Since getting a Bloggie Camera for Christmas.

[Dan]

Nice vid.

Congratulations on the patent Richard! Very well done! You must be proud!

Go get the copycats now and let them license your gear or something. Make a few quid out of the competition. Never a bad thing.

[365drills]

Cheers Dan. Yes somethign we are doing straight away (to gain maxiumum exposure) is creating posts like this, Youtube, Website, Blogs as well as printed media like TileUK and Tile&Stone. That way potential immitators can easily read [find] the information so we hope they will be presuded not to copy. But we will also go on the offensive for any infrigement. Of course the reason we are doing it this way round is that its easier to prevent than prohibit hence the early efforts to get the news out. One thing we know for sure is that A LOT of companies tried to file similar (its just we got there first in 2005). And the fact they tried to file is a good indication they want to make something commercial.

We may have to conceed that with Tabby Cranks it is too time consuming to persue in the courts: RE: his jig made from an offcut tile.

[Tabby Cranks]

I just realised, I've been using a jig from an off cut for well over 10 years now. Anyone know a good patent lawyer?
Well done Richard, I hope all your hard work pays off.