ordered a new saw - finally

[Uncle Cracker]

Actually the inventor first tried to license it to the existing tool companies, but at absurdly high percentages. When that didn't work he tried to get laws passed to require them to use his invention. When that didn't work he started his own tool company.

Exactly. The saw is a means to market his real product. There's no way he's going to just let others use it for peanuts. I wouldn't either.

[cabinetman]

But that's their "hook". It might be the more compassionate thing to do, but it would be marketing suicide, methinks... Sooner or later, a competitive product will emerge (probably right after the patent expires).

I doubt that a competitor will wait. A new product will only have to differ, and may be better, and possibly less expensive.
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[crokett]

Exactly. The saw is a means to market his real product. There's no way he's going to just let others use it for peanuts. I wouldn't either.

I didn't say he had to offer it for peanuts but as I recall from the reading I did on this, what he was asking was going to raise the price of saws on the order of 80-100 bucks for a 4 or 5 hundred dollar saw. See what I mean about being akin to discussions on religion? We are disagreeing already.