Pardon the circlejerk interruption, and believe me I hate BMW just as much as the next person, but this is just a patent application. Like, if you realize your logo has the potential to be a screw head, why would you not patent it to prevent others from using the design.
It’s not made it into any cars, and so far as I’ve seen there are no plans. Even if it does I’d think it’d only be used in some customer-facing application; interior maybe, or decorative attachments in the engine like valve covers etc. Slightly asshole that you’d need a different tool, but not exactly the end of the world unless they actively prevented the tool from being made.
Used to be called patent trolling, but now that all the big corporations that own the politicians deciding patent law are doing it, it’s considered “prudent business practice”
IBM alone files more patents that they’ll never use (except for lawsuits in case someone else does something useful with something similar) in a year than most companies file IN TOTAL for several decades.
They will have the patent on the corresponding driver for the screw, and i doubt they will allow third party shops to purchase the drivers for anything resembling a reasonable price. Meaning that you will be forced to take the car to a BMW authorized mechanic. It’s taking away the consumer’s right to repair.
Yeah the patent doesn’t mention anything about it being a security screw as far as I can tell, it just looks like they patented a dumbass design that’s only useful for the aesthetics and people are making some sensational headlines. Like, yeah, we’d just get or make the bits to undo them - they also know that?
Honestly, it doesn’t look like a dumbass screw to me. Phillips heads are dumbass screws. It is a shit design. This actually looks quite solid as a screw head.
… What are you talking about? The design ensures you can’t be anything but perpendicular to it in order to have any positive engagement, and Phillips screws are so notoriously bad about camming out at even ideal angles that it’s been popularly believed that was an intentional design feature (it wasn’t phillips screws just suck) for almost as long as they’ve existed.
Pardon the circlejerk interruption, and believe me I hate BMW just as much as the next person, but this is just a patent application. Like, if you realize your logo has the potential to be a screw head, why would you not patent it to prevent others from using the design.
It’s not made it into any cars, and so far as I’ve seen there are no plans. Even if it does I’d think it’d only be used in some customer-facing application; interior maybe, or decorative attachments in the engine like valve covers etc. Slightly asshole that you’d need a different tool, but not exactly the end of the world unless they actively prevented the tool from being made.
My two cents
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That’s a fair point.
Patenting things you don’t have intention of actually doing, “just in case”, is just shit tbh.
Used to be called patent trolling, but now that all the big corporations that own the politicians deciding patent law are doing it, it’s considered “prudent business practice”
IBM alone files more patents that they’ll never use (except for lawsuits in case someone else does something useful with something similar) in a year than most companies file IN TOTAL for several decades.
That is such fucking bullshit.
Please elaborate.
Bad phrasing, that they do that is such fucking bullshit, that’s fucked. Fuck IBM is what I was saying.
They will have the patent on the corresponding driver for the screw, and i doubt they will allow third party shops to purchase the drivers for anything resembling a reasonable price. Meaning that you will be forced to take the car to a BMW authorized mechanic. It’s taking away the consumer’s right to repair.
It’s all conjecture at this point. The patent alone on the screw head I understand, because companies are obligated to protect their logo.
You dont need a patent to protect a trademark.
Yeah the patent doesn’t mention anything about it being a security screw as far as I can tell, it just looks like they patented a dumbass design that’s only useful for the aesthetics and people are making some sensational headlines. Like, yeah, we’d just get or make the bits to undo them - they also know that?
Honestly, it doesn’t look like a dumbass screw to me. Phillips heads are dumbass screws. It is a shit design. This actually looks quite solid as a screw head.
It will cam out and chowder if you’re not 100% perpendicular to it, I would say it’s actually worse than a phillips screw
… What are you talking about? The design ensures you can’t be anything but perpendicular to it in order to have any positive engagement, and Phillips screws are so notoriously bad about camming out at even ideal angles that it’s been popularly believed that was an intentional design feature (it wasn’t phillips screws just suck) for almost as long as they’ve existed.
Seriously. Why the hell aren’t star heads the standard by now? Is it spite? It feels like spite.