Quote Originally Posted by Oleg View Post
i know a story behind the pedal ... very interesting ..

Guy who invented the pedal pitched to Miller and Lincoln. mistake that he did that he DIDNT patent the pedal on time.
Lincoln got the deal and now suing Miller. Miller ripped off that guy basically
Ahhhhh. Interesting. I only searched for miller patents. Oddly enough, that patent even mentions connecting it to a miller welder.
I'd be curious to know the story. Haha.

Patents are a tricky business. My mentor/senior engineer has a patent on a control system for an electrical test instrument (Keithley SMU). One time an IC rep was pitching an all-in-one type IC to function much like an SMU. Upon hearing this "novel" approach, he just went silent for a second and responded with "Yeah, I know the idea behind that. I have a patent for it.". Stuff like that happens ALL the time in the electronics world especially since it's very hard to see "under the hood" on electronic devices like you can for mechanical ones. Funny coincidence, he co-oped back at Lincoln back when he was in college.

The patents that will kick your butt are the abstract ones that cover a huge range of things. From what I saw, that wireless pedal patent is pretty abstract, which stinks for people trying to replicate the idea.

I found one patent for Lincoln, which was issued for 2010. The one I dug up not related to either was issued in 2008 I think..