Does B&M Have a Copyright on the Floorless Design?

I'm just very curious as to why B&M seems to be the only company who has produced the floorless design coasters. Every other type of coaster......with the exception of the 4d....has been done by more than one coaster manufacturer.

So how has B&M managed to have dominated this highly successful area of coasterdom unless they have sole rights to this design? Anyone know if that is indeed the case?

acutally they don't have a copyright on the floorless model, just they have so many copyrights involving the machanical aspects of the floorless coaster that no other firm really wants to spend time to design there version of the floorless, and design all new machanical devices for the coaster when they are making money designing their own designs, i really don't see any other firm designing one, unless they are really down in money and no park contracts the firm for a new coasters.

And actually B&M is creating their version of the 4D coaster right now... click the link below for a copyright/patent request for their version of the 4D

4D Patent Request

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Cedar Point Online - http://www.cponline.tk

*** This post was edited by Rctycoon2k on 6/7/2002. ***

How many times are we going to have to go over this? It's NOT a B&M 4D design. It's simply a more efficient way of loading their flying coaster. I know it's easy to submit to wishful thinking, but c'mon, one drawing cannot indicated a 4D style coaster. If you read the application, it talks about "ease of embarquement and disembarquement" which means getting on and getting off the coaster. Do a search for B&M 4D to see the discussions at length.

-Seth

Copyright? Try Patent. And BTW, here is there patent for the floorless roller coaster: Boink.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes MCS Please, Feel Free To Call Me Jes!
"Thank You Jeff Putz"

Wow.......I just knew there was a reason why other manufacturers hadn't done anything with a floorless design! Thanks for that link, Zero-G!

So the people who made the first invert, stand up, suspended, and flying didn't put a patent on their designs because all of those were duplicated by other companies with their own design

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"The opposite of war isn't peace, its creation," Rent.

Copyrights, trademarks and patents... oh my!

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

No, Jephry. A patent only protects you so much.

Another company just has to change the design enough to make it "different" from the original. That's why multiple compaines make stand-ups, flyers, etc.

I just think there's not much interest from other companies to make a floorless coaster. Aside from a slightly more "open" ride, there really isn't much difference over a standard design.

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www.coasterimage.com

Lord G is right. Off the top of my head I can think of a couple of different ways to implement a floorless coaster station such that it would not infringe on the B&M patent.

Oh and just for the masses what refuse to distinguish between the trinity:

Patents: Given for devices, methods, tools, plants, chemical sequences, etc..

Trademarks: Given for service names, symbols and other identifying indica

Copyrights: Given to works of art, paintings, writings, musical scores.

Patents and Trademarks are given via (duh) The United States Patent and Trademark Office. Copyrights are administered via the Library of Congress. Two separate governmental entities.
lata,
jeremy
--who has heard that public schools no longer require "Constitution" classes to enter and exit high school....

Patents are also issued internationally as well. B&M usually get both US and International patents on basically anything they develop. Setpoint has a "floorless" style coaster(Over the Top) they have developed but it's not built for speed and thrills.

and people.. that patent is NOT for a B&M 4d... It's to change the loading mechanism to have less moving parts built into the station. Remember, currently if the loading system breaks down, the entire station is useless. With this new design, the station can function normally while the train is inoperative. With 3 trains on the flyers, this will still allow capacity to stay at average levels. See, the Vekoma FD is not totally useless :)

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WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

Chris: More specifically, they get or should I say apply for US and EUROPEAN patents. As far as I know, they have nothing registered with the JPO (Japanese Patent Office), but I havent check the JPO for B&M stuff lately.

Plus there is at least one design that is in the EPO (European Patent Office) that is NOT here in the USPTO. That being the vertical coaster design (I only know cause I can read French). There was no related published US Documents (if it was unpublished, I couldnt tell you anyway)
jeremy
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"To get into this head of mine, would take a monkey-wrench, and a lot of wine" Res How I Do

I'm sure if they had a buyer for a dive machine in the US, they would process it's patent with the USPTO as well. But, why pay all the money and go through all that if you dont have any sold in the US.... I think the JPO refers back EPO on their patents if it's issued their first. The USPTO requires that they be patented here also if its gonna be used on US soil.

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WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

Sorry all for the mixup in terminology. I'm an English major.........so the word "copyright" always comes to mind before "patent". Thank you, Jeremy, for showing this lady the error of her ways. ;)

I was just doing some browsing on that site, and I came upon this bad boy.... http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=US6341564&CY=ep&LG=en&DB=EPD

Now, tell me thats not crazy. Its got missing sections of track for the train to "jump". It's got vertical movement of the seats in the car. It's got mid course collisions. And to top all that off, its got trains riding on top of each other... Like I said, crazy... But I like it :)

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-FCR
I'd Rather Be Riding Roller Coasters

I think that one is connected to two sets of rails...and when one rail disappears I guess you don't see the other rail and you freak out, lol. It looks strange whatever it is. I'm not sure if that's exactly what it is.

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"Tea & Cake Or Death?-Eddie Izzard"~My No Limits Designs...http://coastergames.net/author.php?author=BKF%20Master

No Chris, all of the agencies operate independently. There *is* a cooperative treaty (aptly called the Patent Cooperative Treaty) that many countries participate in. Those documents are adminstered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, but they carry no "monopoly" rights.

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"To get into this head of mine, would take a monkey-wrench, and a lot of wine" Res How I Do