Kevin Purcell
Well-known member
Like I said, if they don't do this, someone else will do it for them.
On another note, I'm curious as to what others think about "copying" the alphas really means. What features/innovations do the alphas possess that are actually patentable? If any, have they been infringed?
Innovations in pure optics are rare though they are seen in the patent literature but they don't cover the optics were talking about.
Most of the innovation is in optomechanical design (and it's where the major bins makers all hold patents): clever focuser designs especially with center diopter setting.
In this case the Chinese EDs use a simple "move the right ocular" (sort of individual focuser) design. Old as the hills, so to speak, check your favorite porro. The Top Bins (and some others) use a more clever mechanism with center diopter setting to lock an offset between one focuser lens and the other.
So changing to a locking center diopter setting would be an interesting indication of a change in Chinese ED bin optomechanical design.
They don't seem to patent their various coating designs (though there are patents on various AR and phase coatings most expired) preferring I suppose to keep them as a trade secret (or perhaps improved coatings aren't innovative enough in the "non-obvious" sense to gain patent protection) though they're "easy" to reverse engineer with an ion microprobe for composition (and with more effort for thickness). I suspect the physicas of multilayer coatings is well enough known in the regular textbook literature that the design and manufacture of good coatings is not beyond a lot of companies now (including the Chinese). Very good coatings might still be the province of the Top Bins though.
And their optical designs seem to be trade secrets (and again easily reverse engineered). Not protected in any way except trade secret i.e. your employees and the company doesn't reveal the design but if the opposition can figure it out they can use the design idea.
They will also hold design patents which cover the appearance of the binoculars (the trade dress) so that people can't make bins that look just like Top Bin XXX.
So I'm not sure what copying means in this context: using well known optical designs with well known coatings with well known optomechanics (as the Chinese ED seem to do) with careful enough construction with good components doesn't seem to be copying anyone but just using "known" technology carefully enough to make optically high quality bins but doing it at a lower cost.
So the real innovation is the pricing for a given (high) quality. And I wouldn't write that off as trivial.
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