Bulgarian Scientist in Legal Argument with Toyota

It's amusing to note how many small-timers pop out of the woodwork
with similar arguments, saying that their own little warm-over of
a 3-speed bicycle hub was !!stolen!! by Toyota. Fact is, planetaries
and variants have been used in transmissions of all kinds for years,
especially automatic transmissions, so there's plenty of prior art.
.
Heck, the model T ford had a 2-speed manual planetary gearset.
.
_H*

 

Not much information from which to draw any sort of conclusion as to merit.

 

You're right, it's just a planetary gear set. The interface though is a work of art. If this fellow did indeed come up with this boot-strap like concept that so beautifully coordinates with engine and electrical power for optimum torque, then he does indeed deserve recognition. But if he's not the one responsible, I, for one, would like to know who is. From an engineering perspective it's a truly wonderful piece of work.

 

There's a guy in Brataslavia who invented transparent glass and is also pressing a lawsuit against not only Toyota, but GM, Ford, Chrysler and Mazda. I'll post the link when I find it.

 

Shouldn't he sue companies like Owens-Corning instead? They sell more glass windows and doors than all the cars combined.

Image no glass windows in any new house construction.... :lol:

 

Interested in Ken Cooper's comment about the invention being a great piece of engineering.

I am not an engineer so cannot make any statement about whether antonov's invention is original but:
The patent goes back a long way (late 80s in France, the US one is filed in 1991- now expired?)
The Antonov company is listed in the UK secondary stock market ("AIM").
They have announced a recent 'option' on a deal with a Chinese company for a six-speed gearbox.
One of their non-executive directors is a non-exec and former CEO of several UK listed businesses...

On the other hand the company has been listed 10 years and made no sales to speak of. Customers seem to evaporate at the last minute.

A curious business - would be interested if anyone else has dug around. The other claimant, Solomon, is transparently bogus. Is Antonov real or a higher grade of gold digger?


The text of the press release (which is released under UK financial disclosure rules) hints that the situation is Toyota did not offer enough.


The US patent (the original is in French) is at:
http://v3.espacenet.com/origdoc?DB=EPODOC&...614d39b53faca71

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ken Cooper @ Feb 9 2006, 02:11 AM) [snapback]206232[/snapback]</div>

YES i know who REALLY invented the "power split device" it was my father. It was derived from an award winning differential patented in 1988. Toyota are not using Antonovs technology as Antonovs requires a box and the "psd" is self supporting for one thing. Toyota got it from our dishonest patent attorney. Hence toyotas sudden change from traditional belt and pulley cvts to the "psd" which is actually a more signicant invention than most people realise with virtually limitless applications in anything that requires power transferred from source to output.

Any investors out there want to take on toyota???

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rattrap @ Feb 18 2006, 05:54 PM) [snapback]212016[/snapback]</div>

I don't know about the rest, but i can tell you that patents are valid for 20 years from the date filed (except in the cases of medical devices and other items that need to be FDA approved - those can get an extension to cover the time it takes to move through the FDA process)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Aug 3 2006, 08:16 AM) [snapback]296964[/snapback]</div>

Is that true for non-US patent law as well?

Recall that one of the tenets of patent law is application and proof beyond an idea.

Look up Seldon vs Ford concerning the automobile..

 

<_< Hmmmmmmmmm

Seems to me that the planteary gearset was used in the Ford Model-T - same gearset as in the Prius although linked to the internal combustion engine in a different manner.

You don't have to have a valid claim to file a lawsuit, just a lawyer.... **SIGH**

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wstander @ Aug 3 2006, 10:59 AM) [snapback]296985[/snapback]</div>

Also remember that you don't necissarily need a valid claim in order to have a patent issued... tons of patents are issued for absolute crap all the time. If it ever comes up in court, the judge throws out the patent claim because of prior art or what ever.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ken Cooper @ Feb 9 2006, 09:11 AM) [snapback]206232[/snapback]</div>

Toyota did.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(spwolf @ Aug 17 2006, 07:14 PM) [snapback]304964[/snapback]</div>

Toyota did what?

 

Ford may have been first with the planetary gearset in the Model-T...

....but they still have to license certain parts of HSD technology from Toyota for use in Escape etc.

Strange world....

Anyway, all of this bickering will be a distant memory when series hybrids make their appearance (way more simple and efficient and no need for a PSD).

 

Seems I recall that an "almost U.S. President" claims to have invented the Internet.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Charles Suitt @ Sep 12 2006, 03:19 PM) [snapback]318541[/snapback]</div>

If you believe that than maybe you should wonder about where your news is coming from, check out the true. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(points and plugs @ Sep 13 2006, 09:13 AM) [snapback]318870[/snapback]</div>

He may have not actually claimed to have "invented" the internet, but he did strongly imply that it's existance and growth is due to him.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE("Al Gore")</div>

Snopes equates that statement with a hypothetical statement by President Eisenhower stating that he "created the Interstate Highway System". In Eisenhower's case, that would be a fairly accurate statement, in that he and Congress had to wield a considerable amount of tax money and political clout to make an interstate highway system come into reality in the timeframe that it did.

However, in Gore's case, do you really believe that Gore, Congress, or any political entity had a significant impact on the growth of the Internet in the 90s? Do you really believe that you are here reading PriusChat due to the efforts of Gore and Congress?

The closest you could come to giving credit to Congress, Gore, or Clinton is that they specifically chose to stay out of the way, and passed some moritoriums on taxes on internet sales transactions (treating it like mail order). Does staying out of the way allow Gore to claim credit for the internet's growth?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Marlin @ Sep 13 2006, 09:10 AM) [snapback]318894[/snapback]</div>

Not in the 90's, but before that it was part of a thing called "ARPANET", (Advanced Research Projects Agency, later called DARPA for Defense ...), primarily for .mil, .gov and .edu domains. Once it reached critical mass, connected with BitNet, NSFNet etc. and was exposed to enough college students and professors, then it took a life of its own, especially when CERN, a government research agency in Switzerland, developed hypertext and the web browser in the early 90's. So our government and other governments (and some pseudo-independent agencies, like InterNIC, set up by NSF for domain registration) have had an integral part in the development of the internet. If it had been done by private companies, it would more closely resemble the cell-phone industry, with multiple standards, some analog, some digital, and equipment from one system couldn't be used on another.
The U.S. government still has limited control over the internet. Domain names for instance. Despite calls from various places, proposals for TLDs like .sex or .xxx have been denied, and some speculate it's because of the Puritan stance of our current government. Even though it could be used to more easily segregate that type of content.
I remember the days when any commercial activity was taboo on the internet. You couldn't tell people in a newsgroup (like this) that you were selling a book, even if it was on-topic, much less take credit-card orders. What a change since then! That had already changed by the time I put up my first website in 1995 using a new 14,400 baud modem.

 

Correct. Without Gore's ARPANET enabling legislation we might now be communicating via dialup through the only BBS in the United States, and paying user fees to its owner and operator Microsoft.