The story of the StormBoard - Part 3 - June 2008

The final instalment of a three-part tale of product development and exploitation as explained by David Copp of Dummett Copp Patent Attorneys

RON had a very positive reaction from his group of fellow surfers, but had found it difficult to get either of the main kite-surfing equipment manufacturers to take notice. One of them said they thought it was likely to be a short-lived fad and they didn’t want to invest. The other company was obviously strapped for cash anyway.

But then Ron had a brilliant idea (yes, another one!). He would talk to one of the holiday companies who ran watersports holidays in the Mediterranean and see if he could use their facilities and their clientele to get the initial interest (and some long term testing) done within their organisations.

Ron was obviously a proficient kite-surfer on conventional boards, and one of the companies was actively looking for a kite-surfing instructor. He applied for and got the job and was able to arrange that he could bring six of his StormBoards with him. This was great! He could teach people to use a conventional surfing rig and then move them on to the StormBoard where they would get hooked and would want to buy one when they got home. Lots of people would see it; far more than on Felixstowe beach.

Being wise and well advised, Ron went off to see his Patent Attorney before going ahead, as he realised that up to that point, his patent protection was in the UK only. Fortunately, it was less than twelve months since the original UK patent application had been filed, and Ron was still in time to file an International patent application.

And his plans worked. The board was received enthusiastically in the Mediterranean and when the summer season was over, Ron set up a small manufacturing facility back home (the manufacture was not that difficult), and It worked so well that he had enough orders to keep busy through the winter. Trouble was however brewing.

The holiday company had such good feedback that they decided that they would equip their other resorts for next season with copies of Ron’s StormBoard. Ron had left a board at the resort where he had been based, and someone there took the board off to a local engineering firm and asked them to copy it Ron’s board was clearly marked “Patent Pending” and either language difficulties meant that was not recognised, or it was deliberately ignored. It was back to the Patent Attorney to decide what to do!

It turned out that there was a big issue here. Ron’s patent application was not yet granted, but the searches had been carried out which showed that there was every likelihood that a patent would be granted in due course. Armed with this information, the Attorney wrote two letters to the holiday company, one advising them of the existence of the patent application, and one offering them an exclusive licence if they agreed to buy the boards they needed from Ron.

And since this is a fairy story, and we like a happy ending, that is what they did. Ron makes lots of boards and if you want to have a go on one in the summer, it is no use going on holiday with H***** or T******, because they don’t have StormBoards; go instead with S******.

Originally published in the Suffolk Business Magazine in June 2008