I believe that it would have to be a substantive change, not some minor improvement. That would leave the original device open to all comers. What substantive improvement would cause the original patent device to be worthless in the marketplace? Nothing comes readily to mind.
FWIW IIRC SawStop has made multiple patent changes in the past several years. Remember, the developers/original owners/designers were woodworking Patent Attorneys. Changing and extending the patent would be right up their alley, so to speak, I think.
Yes. No. It doesn't matter. The basic technology is what is valuable. Anyone can make a clone SawStop the instant the patent runs out. Nothing about a currently produced SawStop can be patented.
No, patents run for 20 years from the date of *filing*, not from the date of product availability. There is usually significant time between a patent being filed and the first unit sold. Once one is "offered for sale" (which includes marketing/advertising/demonstrating the feature to be patented), nothing in it can be patented.
There is no such thing. There are fees that are required to keep a patent in force for the entire 20 years and if you want to call that being "renewed", OK, but after the 20 years, there is no renewal. The technology becomes public. That's the whole deal; the inventor gets a government enforced monopoly for a specified time (currently 20 years from date of filing), in trade the inventory has to teach the technology to others (in the patent). The patent must contain 1) enough information such that one "skilled in the art" can produce the widget, and 2) *all* known implementations (at the time of filing) of the patented technology.
Good to know! In about 8 years there will be a lot of Domino clones, just like there is now on the Fein Multimaster.
Do you get upset if the new car you buy has seat belts, air bags or other collision mitigation technology? No, so why with a table saw? Bring it on I say and the sooner the better!
The trouble is that the airbags don't fire expensively the first time a piece of green wood gets in the car.
Leaving aside the fact that there's a switch to disable the brake when necessary, and leaving aside the fact that green wood doesn't necessarily trip the capacitive sensor, why are you cutting green wood on your expensive cabinet saw?
Actually millions are being replaced because when they do go off they injure the occupants.
Some people have a hard on against Saw Stop. I have had my SS for 7 years now and have tripped 2 brakes. Neither was because it was going to save me from being cut. Both times it was MY FAULT. For what it is worth I have used my SS enough that it has paid for it self several times over.
Green wood does not affect the SS unless you are talking about soaking wet treated lumber or the example below. One of my issues was with ripping what appeared to be dry cedar pickets. Dry on the outside, still plenty wet on the inside. They were stored outside and had been rained on.
The second trip was with a dado set and I had forgotten to readjust the brake spacing. No damage to the dado set because the brake fired before the blade even made any movement. SS replaced the brake at no charge.
And yes, why was I cutting wet wood on my expensive cabinet saw? LOL
Nothing at all to add to the conversation. Except I am glad the safety device exists and hope other devices come out and every table saw has a safety device like this. I'm just surprised that this thread started 17 years ago. I did not realize Saw Stop has been around for 17 years. Or more. If I was forced to guess I would have said 10 years.
IIRC around 2000. The SawStop was pooped on in for probably 3-6 years before production. Many said it would never fly and that it was vaporware.
Classic case of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Dont buy the saw that will save 10's of thousands of woodworkers from injuries because of the way it was being marketed.
You can lead a horse to water......
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