Hey Sal - is this a trademark infringement?

[Chumango]

Just saw this

http://vultureequipmentworks.com/produc ... 5hVjHamU6h

[Donut]

You know, I'm not sure. I believe the trademark is for a circle opener on folding knives and the fixed blades get it out of homage.

To make most fixed blades you NEED holes to use screws/pins to attach the scales. They don't need to be visible like the pictured one.

I bet you the hole is there for lanyard use. It would be somewhat odd for fixed blade makers to not be able to use a circle hole for lanyards.

[Chumango]

But the hole is in the blade, forward of the handle. There is a separate hole at the butt of the handle for a lanyard, where a lanyard is actually shown attached. The hole in the blade reminded me of the trademark hole that Spyderco puts in their fixed blades.

[Ray Allen]

I believe many of the blade competition knives have forward placed holes for lanyards. This is so that if they lose their grip when taking big swings the blade does not swing in a large circle and come back to bite them as bad as if the lanyard went through a rear hole.
Cheers....

[Chumango]

The picture that Donut posted is NOT from the link I posted. What Donut posted does not raise any question in my mind. The knife in the link does, however. It has a hole in the blade forward of the handle, and an additional hole at the butt and the picture on the site even shows a lanyard there. I think they market the hole in the blade as a place to strike a ferro rod.

[MacLaren]

The picture that Donut posted is NOT from the link I posted. What Donut posted does not raise any question in my mind. The knife in the link does, however. It has a hole in the blade forward of the handle, and an additional hole at the butt and the picture on the site even shows a lanyard there. I think they market the hole in the blade as a place to strike a ferro rod.

+1

[Donut]

I'm confused. How do you tie your lanyards with a fixed blade so you don't lose grip of the knife?

[FCM415]

Another to pay attention to

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showt ... CRK-Impofu

[Donut]

I think we would need the exact wording of the trademark to have any intelligent conversation about this.

I'm having trouble finding anything that looks official.

[Ray Allen]

I'm confused. How do you tie your lanyards with a fixed blade so you don't lose grip of the knife?

Look at the picture. The lanyard does not prevent the possibility of losing your grip, it mitigates what the blade will do if it happens. Blade Sports compitition rules addresses the lanyard hole placement specifically.
Best...

[Donut]

Here is what I found on the trademark.

"The mark consists of the configuration of a portion of the goods, namely a circular through hole formed in the body of a knife blade"

It looks like ANY circular hole through the blade is the wording of the trademark.

[yablanowitz]

From what Sal has posted in the past, the trademark covers a round hole in a specific location on the blade. Judging by the hole placement on my other Spyderco fixed blades, I would say the hole on the Vultureworks knife is too far back to infringe on the Spyderco trademark.

[fuzzydog]

I am wondering why one would name a knife after an infection that is transmitted through fecal contamination?