Pillowed 6x6. Dealperfect - The good and the bad.

[Ton]

Grrr, me wants to try it. It looks so tasty!
But.. I can't do that to V-cubes

I know the feeling, that's why my competition 3x3x3 is always Rubik, do I have clone's? Yes as I collector I have many from the 80's and a few of the new types, like cube4you, but I do not use them in competition.

- Did you know that last year more than 1 mil clone cubes where confiscated in Europe.....

I actually think that is quite hypocritical Ton. Either you buy them, or you don't. The reason why (collecting) doesn't matter.
You have even told someone that using a knock-off V6 is allowed at a competition (I agree with that) but you seem to think that is morally wrong?

It would be so much easier if Verdes would either sell more products himself, or licensed the technology to others (and they would need to pay a percentage).

If these cubes are really illegal to produce and sell, they would also be illegal to buy and thus should be not allowed in competition. The problem seems to be that they are not proven to be illegal.

You wrote:

you seem to think that is morally wrong??

Please do not write =what I seems to think=, as moderator you should not use this kind of insinuations. Nor have you any right to call the fact that I have clone cubes hypocritical.

First, If you think I am hypocritical, than you really do not understand my relation with the 3x3 Rubik's license holders. Besides you miss the point, I never stated that having a clone is morally wrong. I wrote I know the feeling Erik has, wanted to support the inventors and for me I also want to collect some -I guess many collectors have the same feeling-. That is why I help the Rubik's license holders to track down the clone sources in return...I just wanted to be honest in my statement.

Seconds, officially consumers/cubers can not be held responsible for patent or license infringements.
The WCA has decided that clones are allowed, one of the reasons; organizers can not check every puzzle and check their origin. Besides it will not be practical to disallow 3x3 clones (which are also illegal products).

 

[brunson]

Part of the philosophy of having a patent expire is to a) allow competition after a defined period of protected production and b) encourage further innovation from the original inventor. The design patent on the Rubik color scheme is still in force (I believe) but the mechanical patent has expired.

Edit: The US mechanical patent on the Rubik's 3x3 expired on Mar 29, 2000. Verdes' international patent rights on his designs should expire on May 21, 2023.

 

[qqwref]

The WCA has decided that clones are allowed, one of the reasons; organizers can not check every puzzle and check their origin. Besides it will not be practical to disallow 3x3 clones (which are also illegal products).

I hope they have some better reasons than this... I do not want to imagine a future where they finally have the time/people to check every cube, and then decide to only allow storebought cubes in competition. I understand the wish for the real inventors/manufacturers to be supported, but as a speedsolver I am not going to use a non-clone cube in competition if another cloned one I have is better. If Seventowns wants people to use their cubes in competition they should put the effort in to make them turn better. Verdes has done this and pretty much all the top 5x5 solvers now use a V-cube...

 

[brunson]

The WCA has decided that clones are allowed, one of the reasons; organizers can not check every puzzle and check their origin. Besides it will not be practical to disallow 3x3 clones (which are also illegal products).

I hope they have some better reasons than this...

I think the main reason is that the patent is no long in force.