No More Ranchdog...Now What?

[MikeS]

Another thing to think of, if you have a drawing of one of his boolits that you would like duplicated, send it to Tom at Accurate Molds, and he'll make it for you. In all reality you can't copyright or trademark the actual boolit design, just the name, so even without the exact specs on paper, Tom can make it. Of course it's easier if there's a drawing with specs on it, but I believe Tom can copy a boolit, and with the boolit exchange we have, it shouldn't be hard to get some of almost any design you want to copy.

[MikeS]

Turbo - Another thing about patents, first they're expensive to get, as the patent office takes an adversarial position, so getting a patent attorney is a requirement, and they're not cheap. Second, once you've gone thru all the hassle of getting a patent, it's only as good as the amount of money you have to sue anyone that copies your patented idea. So if you go out, and get a patent using much of your available funds, then some big company comes along and copies it, generally speaking you're SOL. If you had a patent, and GM decided to copy it, they can afford lawyers that can keep your law suit in the courts for years, basically waiting you out, as they could afford to keep it in court much longer than you or I could. So basically all a patent does is make others think twice before copying it. So as a patent attorney once told me, if a big company comes along, and either wants to license one of my patents, or outright buy it, I'd be much better off working with them, rather than trying to fight them later. And another thing, let's use one of Ranch Dog's designs as an example, say a particular boolit design has 10 TL grooves on it, if somebody made an exact copy, but put 11TL grooves on it, or 9, it becomes a new design, so doesn't infringe on his patent. That's another reason why it doesn't pay to try and patent some things, a very minor change is enough to classify it as a new design, and not a copy of an existing design.

[HORNET]

Okay, Michael can get a trademark on the name Ranch Dog, I would imagine, and he could sue anybody making the molds using the Ranch Dog name as part of the designation. But,as MikeS points out, it only takes a minor change and the mold doesn't EXACTLY meet his drawings and, if they DON'T use Ranch Dog as part of the name, there is no grounds for a lawsuit. Have any of you kibitzers ACTUALLY READ the Lee custom mold manufacturing agreement? IIRC, part of the agreement is that Lee retains the right to bring the design into their stock catalog IF they so desire. They usually suffer too much from NIH (Not Invented Here) Syndrome to do this very often, but they do have the right.

[turbo1889]

Regardless of all the technical this and that, this is the main point I was trying to make following the reaction to my first post on this thread:

. . . It . . . doesn't hurt to ask and kindly suggest that it would be nice of him to do that for us on his way out. . . . It's his decision all I and others can do is ask and its ridiculous for some people to get all bent out of shape and start quoting erroneous speculation about "copyrighted boolit designs" and how terrible I am to dare to ask that such a valuable piece of intellectual property be shared freely one the original designer is no longer using them in business enterprise. . . .

*Emphasis Added

[MikeS]

Turbo, you're right, I didn't mean to imply that you did anything wrong by asking. I probably overreacted, but a few months ago when BullShop said they were closing, it created lots of bad blood, with some folks getting really bent out of shape that they dare close, and not disclose what was in their product. So I apologize for overreacting.

[Sonnypie]

To Turbo1889, The short answer is NO.

An observation is: You are very verbose.

But do carry on....

(Why don't you talk to Ranch Dog Molds directly?)

[Carolina Cast Bullets]

Gentlemen,
Like Bullshop, Mike was quite generous to allow me access to his molds. I have a good collection of them as well as some of his less popular molds such as the 38-55, 290 grain 45 LC and his 265 grainer for the 444. All are available from my website

www.carolinacastbullets.com

Please call or email if what you want/need is not there. I do have a couple that are not shown.

Jerry
Carolina Cast Bullets

[turbo1889]

Actually, Bullshop did post a lot of info on this forum. I've used the Hard Lotac reciepe he posted many times. I just used Castrol 2-cycle Snowmobile oil instead of the Bullplate lube.

It is true that as far as I know he still hasn't let the cat out of the bag as far as exactly what Bullplate is but various 2-cycle mix oils can be used instead. I personally find the for actual sprue plate lube the higher priced fully sinthetic stuff seems to work the best and the cheaper non-sinthetic stuff works fine for the boolit lube receipes. There has been rumblings for a very long time on this forum that Bullplate is a specific brand, type, and weight of 2-cycle mix oil or something very similar but very few if any besides the big Bull himself knows for sure and if he wants to keep that part of the secret to himself that is his choice.

But to say he didn't leave anything for us is a harsh and incorrect judgment considering he most certainly did leave us quite a few good lube receipes and a lot of other tid-bits and seems to have only kept one or two aces in the hole and layed his other cards out for us to see.

As to contacting Ranchdog directly, I may indeed but its a general sentament I have towards the topic in general of leaving behind a legacy on your way out so posted in the public forum. I will, also, wait and see what he does with his own web-site since he seems to be archiving all his old designs and what he has sold out of so far and he may intend to set up that archive section of his web-site as a remaining legacy for all I know.