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How to source hard-to-find parts (and the legality of making them yourself)
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tooki:

--- Quote from: eugene on August 03, 2022, 04:15:06 pm ---2. …. So it would be difficult (but not impossible) for the connector manufacturer to argue that you are stealing potential sales from them. They would need to argue that you should be buying entire assemblies from them. Legally, that might make sense, but it is not reasonable. It would be like saying that anyone that needs a replacement valve cover cap for their car needs to buy an entire new engine. I can't imagine even the sleaziest lawyer winning that case.

Worst case, if the manufacturer comes after you, you can settle by having them sell the caps alone, which is all you wanted in the first place.

--- End quote ---
IANAL, but I don’t think any of that is correct. There’s no legal basis whatsoever for the manufacturer to “settle” for selling you the caps. They can refuse to sell them and refuse to let you procure alternatives.
bdunham7:
The R2CT105000 you posted from Mouser appears to just have a flexible vinyl cap and no grooves for a locking pin, but it's hard to tell and you'd probably want to just order one to be sure.  The R2CT107000 is $12 or less in bulk from Mouser, so 50K would be well under $600k.  OK, that is a chuck of change, but if you have a customer that insists on official IP67 ratings and legal clearances, that's their problem.  Unless it is actually your problem for some reason, I wouldn't throw yourself under the bus to save them a buck.

You would need to obtain the patent application to even have the a clue about whether the cap alone would be implicated (it very well might be) and that is something best left to patent attorney who will charge you a nice fee to give you an opinion letter without any guarantee. 

As far as making your own, I've no idea what the requirements are, but your customer would have to be comfortable with a plastic replacement.  At that volume I'd go with an injection molding.  But first I'd contact an actual human at Radiall and explain that you might have a large order of just the caps.  Simply because they don't list them separately doesn't mean that they couldn't accommodate a large-ish order like that.  I suspect they won't be as cheap as you might hope though.
PlainName:
First to note is that it is patent pending, so it's not patented yet and may never be.

Regardless, you've contacted the manufacturer and asked for spares for refurbishment purposes, and they've declined. I think this is covered by right to repair


--- Quote ---In the meantime lower and higher courts continued to reinforce the perspective that the ownership of a product came together with clear rights of the repair and modification of such product: in 1961 the U.S. Supreme Court clearly ruled in the case of Aro Manufacturing Co. v. Convertible Top Replacement Co. that even patented products can be repaired without infringing the rights of the patent owner. While previous instances used rather complex processes to weight if a product was reconstructed or repaired, the Supreme Court clearly stated that, as long as a product can be recognized as a repaired item and not as a new product, repair was admissible.
--- End quote ---

If this doesn't cover it (that is, the patent issue could still be a problem) then the above suggestions of having some Asian manufacturer churn a load out won't circumvent that - you will be the importer and therefore the entity of interest. That would apply regardless of where you source the parts, or whether you make them yourself.

The 3D printed version you show is clearly not the original, so that would be 'recognized as a repaired item' I would think. Should you get more exact copies made, I doubt if you would have a problem if you're just fitting them to the kit you refurbish. Selling them as parts by themselves would be a different matter.

Note that IANAL, and even if everything I say was 100% factual and reliable, the (pending!) patent owner no doubt has tons more money than you and can thus win even when they are wrong.
Brumby:
Firstly, IANAPA (I am not a patent attorney), but I have stuck my nose into this corner of IP.

--- Quote from: KE5FX on August 02, 2022, 05:30:03 pm ---It's the responsibility of the patent holder to come after YOU, not vice versa.  Don't worry about it unless there's actually a patent number on the part or in the documentation.

Not legal advice, just common sense.

--- End quote ---

So ... go blindly into commitment on a particular option then risk having to throw it all away and possibly deal with legal costs and damages claims....

Not what I would call common sense.

The Op is showing a more professional approach.


--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on August 03, 2022, 08:35:17 pm ---First to note is that it is patent pending, so it's not patented yet and may never be.

--- End quote ---
A risky attitude, IMO.  By having the patent application submitted, the priority date is set and should the patent be granted, you are then behind the 8 ball.


--- Quote from: tooki on August 03, 2022, 05:50:02 pm ---
--- Quote from: eugene on August 03, 2022, 04:15:06 pm ---2. …. So it would be difficult (but not impossible) for the connector manufacturer to argue that you are stealing potential sales from them. They would need to argue that you should be buying entire assemblies from them. Legally, that might make sense, but it is not reasonable. It would be like saying that anyone that needs a replacement valve cover cap for their car needs to buy an entire new engine. I can't imagine even the sleaziest lawyer winning that case.

Worst case, if the manufacturer comes after you, you can settle by having them sell the caps alone, which is all you wanted in the first place.

--- End quote ---
IANAL, but I don’t think any of that is correct. There’s no legal basis whatsoever for the manufacturer to “settle” for selling you the caps. They can refuse to sell them and refuse to let you procure alternatives.

--- End quote ---
I agree with tooki.
KaneTW:
Talk with an IP lawyer.

That being said: Patents usually remain pending for up to 3 years. The datasheet is from 2010. They either got the patent or didn't get it, but it's unlikely it's actually still pending.

Some googling suggests it might be https://patents.google.com/patent/EP2239605B1/en
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