Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/166113
LEGAL LINE Continued from page 13 manufacturing resources, but without the vast apparatus and infrastructure to provide the compliance part of the marketing equation. Add to the above hurdles the challenges of new technologies – seven figure welding machines to make 120 mm commodity pistons, advanced casting technologies for turbo hot-side parts, and the growing environmental restrictions on forging and casting plants in the "developing" world. These will soon drastically reduce any cost advantages or eliminate such sources altogether. In the above context, there should be no surprise that the big are growing bigger, and the small are joining, merging or disappearing. On the other side of the universe in hydraulics, GET, non-traditional track systems (rubber, etc.) and the old favorite, undercarriage, the cost of entry remains reasonable, and the developing world supply and demand growth is exploding. Today, for example, as technology matures and becomes more accessible, parts and systems, like hydrostatics, other advanced hydraulic systems and parts, rubber tracks, GET and its progeny become more commoditized daily. This path is well traveled. The same computerized measurement equipment, similar metallurgical testing and manufacturing from the "screen to the machine" that set the cost trend downward for 64 pistons, valves, turbochargers and so on, is now applied to all sorts of products that require some measure of precision in manufacturing, materials or both, and is widely available. A coordinate measuring machine and software suite that permits digitizing of almost any part now costs $25,000, not the $100,000+ of 10 or more years ago, not to mention the flood of such technology on the secondary (used) market. CAD/CAM software and machining equipment has migrated from $500,000 machining cells and $50,000 software packages to, literally, laptops and bench mountable milling/turning machines for the well-heeled ($10,000) home hobbyist. Similarly, the universal accessibility of FEA and FEM software and the knowhow to use it has also migrated south from the $500,000+ MATRA systems to open ware on the Internet or at worst a $3000+ license for simple PCbased applications. Following this is a virtual explosion of the once prohibitively expensive "rapid prototyping" machines and software, reaching now into the virgin territory of making prototypes out of metal instead of polymers. This could mean "generating" an entire assembly test-quality turbocharger set, a machining test piston blank, or the case and "guts" of a hydrostatic pump or motor with nothing more than a PC and a $40,000 prototyping machine. In short, this means anybody with some basic engineering smarts and under $100,000 can get a long way into the parts business with enough informa- tion to jump start a project with relatively unsophisticated vendor casters, forgers and machine shops. What is the lesson from last year? It is getting both easier and harder to get in the game and stay in at a profitable level. Now, having "solved" all of the manufacturing and engineering problems, what of the legal/IP side? Candidly, it is worse than ever. The same explosion of technology that makes it both harder and easier to make new products or reverse engineer existing ones also widens the field for infringement, as well as unfair and deceptive trade practices. It used to be that the "fringes" of the supply world could come and go with unlawful products and practices, and even shoddy products, but seldom in the mainstream, or for any length of time. Today, access to all of the computing and manufacturing resources that were once the province of only the most wealthy companies, are now so easily obtainable and easy to implement that even the shadiest of operators can make reasonably good imitations that are even harder to fight, since the IP/legal world is about 10 generations behind the engineering world and will never catch up in our lifetimes. What is the lesson from Miami to Banff ? Nothing more complicated than it is getting harder and harder to economically, honestly and lawfully compete. Those that plan and invest will thrive and survive; those that don't will fall by the wayside. ● Robert McIntyre Wegman, Hessler and Vanderburg 6055 Rockside Woods Blvd., Suite 200 Independence, Ohio 44131 Phone 01.216.642.3342 (office) 01.216.403.0516 (Cell) e.mail RWMcintyre@wegmanlaw.com IDA UNIVERSAL September-October 2013