[Trombone-l] Don't pull your F slide out too far/Date?

[Fred M Hudson]

The date of the patent grant is Dec 27, 1994, which means it expires on
Dec. 26, 2011. So, just keep on "lippin' down" those B naturals til the
next Iowa caucus then you are free to pull that F slide as far as you
want!

grins

Fred H

On Fri, April 4, 2008 10:21 am, Dave Demko wrote:
> I worked at a software company where the management brought in a
> patent attorney to interview us tech guys. I described a clever but
> not astonishingly original way of modeling telecom circuits we used in
> our provisioning system. In less than an hour, the lawyer said I'd
> told him enough for five or six patentable ideas. Say what? Maybe B.
> P. Leonard was similarly surprised to hear that the E flat attachment
> qualified for a patent.
>
> Edwards sells an E flat slide for the T350. I wonder if the University
> of Akron collects fees for those.
>
> Dave D.
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 1:51 AM, Richardson,  Timothy A Mr CIV USA
> IMCOM-Europe <Timothy.A.Richardson at eur.army.mil> wrote:
>> Dave,
>>
>>  B. P. Leonard does play trombone, though it's not his day job, and has
>>  been a list member here and on OTJ.  His championing of the G
>> attachment
>>  makes a lot of sense for the amateur, at least to me; his constant
>> bore
>>  theories are a little more controversial.  Well, maybe a lot
>>  controversial.  <grin>  But I had some private correspondence with him
>>  and he seemed to be a pretty decent guy.
>>
>>  Somehow I don't see him getting rich on the Eb bass trombone!!!  Oh,
>>  wait, it's assigned to University of Akron, guess they get the fees.
>>  Look for a new football power very soon with all that income.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: Dave Tall [mailto:davetall at btrb.com]
>>  Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 12:17 PM
>>  To: trombone-l at samford.edu
>>  Subject: [Trombone-l] Don't pull your F slide out too far
>>
>>  or you'll owe B. P. Leonard of the University of Akron some patent
>> fees.
>>
>>
>>  United States Patent  5,375,499
>>  Leonard  December 27, 1994
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  --------
>>  Single trigger perfect fifth slide bass trombone
>>
>>
>>  Abstract
>>  A slide trombone is provided which has an attachment that is activated
>>  by a single thumb trigger to lower the basic pitch of the trombone by
>> a
>>  perfect fifth. This attachment configuration permits the player to
>> play
>>  all the chromatic tones between the tenor range and the pedal notes
>>  using a standard length slide.
>>
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  --------
>>  Inventors:  Leonard; B. P. (Akron, OH)
>>  Assignee: The University of Akron (Akron, OH)
>>
>>  Appl. No.:  08/064,961
>>  Filed:  May 18, 1993
>>
>>  ===============================================
>>
>>  I'm comforted to know that the USPTO's policy of granting trivial
>>  patents for inventions with prior art and/or obvious to someone
>> skilled
>>  in the subject isn't limited to software and business process patents,
>>  but includes stunning and heretofore unimagined inventions such as a
>>  bass trombone with a single valve tuned to Eb.
>>
>>  Mr. Leonard also has a patent on an inline bass trombone with the
>> thumb
>>  valve tuned to a minor third and the finger valve tuned to
>>  "approximately six semitones".
>>
>>  These are nearly as impressive as patent 6368227, "Method of swinging
>> on
>>
>>  a swing", and patent 5443036, "Method of exercising a cat" (using a
>>  laser pointer).
>>
>>  What a country!
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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