"Be it known that we, Sidney Wasserman and Allen M. Sterns, citizens of the United States, residing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State of Michigan, have invented a new, original, and ornamental Design for a Toy Gun, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part thereof..." [extract: Ebay patent copy auction]
Looking at Wasserman and Sterns STRATO toy gun above it immediately reminds of the Thunderbirds pistol by Lone Star as featured on the excellent Vintage Thunderbirds Toys site and all its subsequent knockoffs like the Pilen and Rocket Gun versions [Rocket Gun pictured]. What's the story there then? Did Lone Star get a licence to use the design?
1 comment:
Nope, Lone Star didn't have to, Paul. The Design Patent on the Strato gun was issued in June 1953 for a period of 3 1/2 years only (is what it says on the patent document I just located). So by the time Lone Star wanted to produce a Thunderbirds gun in the mid-60s, they could just use the design for free.
Should anybody be interested (nice one for the Vintage TB Toys site perhaps) then it's design patent nr D169921.
Good thing those people on ePay included some of the document text including the inventor's names. With a bit of luck it's then a piece of cake to find the number and dig up the same documents for free. :)
Best
--
Paul
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