I picked up a new pair of AirFlex Combat Knee Pads last week from Crye Precision and just noticed that they had made a slight change to the mold for the rubber cap. Above you can see the new version and below an older Pad.
What they’ve added is a link to www.lwpatents.com which is a simple website that lists all of LineWeight’s patents. LineWeight LLC is Crye’s IP holding company and the site lists each patent by item and number.
Other than that, no additional changes have been made. For users, they are the same pads you’ve been wearing. For collectors it will be a data point. But for competitors it’s a warning. They want others to be fully cognizant that there is a patent on this product. Crye Precision has been defending their intellectual property for years and I see this as a message that they will continue to do so.
Tags: Crye Precision, LineWeight LLC
This might be a good time to suggest to all those who haven’t, go check out patent #D487848; in particular, the inventors and the Certificate of Correction.
This website method of listing patents is gaining popularity.
All new Magpul items have been marked in a similar way with ip.magpul.com instead of individual patent numbers for the last couple of years.
Despite being the big kid on the block, I can’t help but feel bad for Crye, I can’t think of anyone that gets more of their stuff ripped off.
Well Luke(no wise-ass intended) – plagiarism IS the sincerest form of flattery, mes non? Guess if Crye didn’t have such an incredible amount of well engineered ‘cool-factor’, other folks wouldn’t be ripping off their designs quite so often… God bless Caleb Crye – THE patron Saint of Combat Gear!!