Not exactly the case. Marinebeam is still an active licensee, and is still manufacturing the RLT collars for its own commercially available products. Because of licensing restrictions, however, Marinebeam will not sell the components individually at this time.
How do you know that?
It seems to me that they just bought a bunch of stuff when wavien still existed and are just reselling what they have.
Even the other wavien collar flashlight that wavien produced is no longer sold by marinebeam, probably because they ran out of stock and don’t get any new ones.
You can easily read the whole explanation on the Marinebeam website. Marinebeam was originally purchasing housings from Brinkmann, which was the same supplier Wavien had previously used for their proof of concept flashlights. But, Brinkmann went bankrupt more than two years ago, and Wavien’s backer Metro Media pulled the plug on Wavien shortly thereafter. All of the IP was sold to another entity, Meadowstar. Meadowstar was also a licensee that builds a non-lethal light weapon for the military using the Wavien RLT technology. In the meantime, Marinebeam is an active licensee, and has been designing, building, and selling two different versions of their own design using their own suppliers for the optical components. Marinebeam did not buy any surplus components from Wavien, or from Meadowstar. It did, however, buy surplus branded housings from Brinkmann (originally destined for Home Depot).
If they are designing and build everything then why aren’t they selling the collars just like they sell their other optical components…
Post 26 explains why.
If you spent more time reading posts instead of concentrating on your passive/aggressive replies, you might learn something Enderman.
The answer is pretty simple to understand. The RLT is a patented invention, and Wavien is a licensing company. Just like you can’t go out and make RLT reflectors, and sell them commercially (without owning the IP), neither can Marinebeam. IP licenses are very restrictive for very obvious reasons.
To help you better understand it, let’s say that Marinebeam (or any licensee) had the unlimited right to sell the RLT components that they manufacture, and Maglite wanted to use the RLT technology in their high-volume LED flashlights. Maglite could easily avoid the half-a-million dollar licensing fee, as well as a per flashlight royalty to Wavien, by simply buying the RLT collars directly from the licensee. That would be great for the licensee (and Maglite), but not so good for the company trying to continue to license the IP to others.
Contrary to what one may assume, Wavien was primarily interested in selling licenses, not individual components to modders and hobbyists. They made and sold very modest amounts of the RLT modules and hand-built flashlights only to generate some buzz, and as proof-of-principle to potential licensees that the technology worked.
Ok cool, so why then was wavien able to sell the collars but not marinebeam?
Back when both wavien and marinebeam were selling products only wavien sold the collars individually.
I have asked the same question several months before,and some guy answered that it is very difficult,because the printed collar has to be extra smooth so as to reflect the light at high rate.
I hope you realize you are replying to a 2 year old post from someone who is no longer active on the forum…
No I have not seen the time of this post.
How can one patent a concave spherical mirror with a hole in it, and keep it patented for so long?
I dunno. How can somebody write a few words down on paper, like say Happy Birthday to You, and copyright it for more than 80 years? Maybe it is to protect the work product of creative people, and to prevent others from stealing and profiting from their ideas and efforts.
I so wish I could opt out from the nonsensous stapling of copyright on each of my creations…
Bought out by a company of lawyers pretending they are doing research - it's pretty disgusting.
Has any one else tried this? Those old bulbs can shatter just by looking at them.
What?? I know the owners, and there isn’t a single lawyer among them. In fact, it is just two really nice guys that rubbed two nickles together to buy Wavien out of bankruptcy (after honorably serving this country in the military), and so far, they have nothing to show for it. The previous owners also invested a lot trying to make a go of it and went bankrupt. If losing a fortune is disgusting, then I agree with you. We all hate that.
Perhaps I am stepping out of bounds, as I can see that you are a prolific poster with more than 30 such posts in just the last 30 days, and 7 years-worth of hundreds and hundreds of valuable insights on nearly every topic, but perhaps you would like to elaborate on how disgusting these folks really are.
Now the Chinese are copying the invention that many trolls have continually poo-poo’d on this forum, yet these same folks are now paying 4X the price from Microfire, and are then proud of themselves thinking they got a really good deal and an unbeatable beam from China. I haven’t seen a single post about how disgusting this intellectual property theft is, unless someone here thinks someone stole the idea they once had in their head, but never acted upon it.
Politics aside I think almost all the serious thrower flashlight builders on here respect what RLT is capable of. So much so that most of them (us) whatever even purchased this tech directly from the people in question when they did a group buy for us (that was nice of them).
Also, I dont think many people here are doing any business with Microfire at those prices.
Do you mean MeadowStar here? The HQ is in an office bldg. 120 patents - for wut? Just to own them and deny others? They certainly are denying us. I find this no better than the car giants and oil giants buying out battery technology patents just to bury them in research.
I believe there was some contention on the idea being patented specifically with regard to an LED, when a similar or identical mirror had been used with other light sources already (prior art). However, I’m not an attorney and the debate was also primarily before my time.
Also, the original company allegedly sent cease and desist letters to individuals who were making their own one-off (or a few) mirrors for private use. If that’s true, it’s kind of crappy. Again, just my impression from what I’ve read, but it seemed like a lot of modders and enthusiasts were interested in the mirrors but couldn’t get them. Then, when they pursued alternatives, they were threatened.
If you know the wavien collar patent holders, it might be worth pointing them here. There is still demand, and rather than having the patent sit and do nothing they could try to arrange some licensing deal and/or group buy.