Kelly Slater may be moving forward with his circular wave pool idea, but the Kelly Slater Wave Company has hit a flat spell when it comes to protecting its intellectual property thanks to an extremely similar patented registered by Greg Webber and Webber Wave Poosl, according to a Stu Nettle story on Swellnet.com.au.
Since applying for a patent in 2008 Kelly Slater and his business partner, Adam Fincham, have twice been rejected because their wave pool infringes upon Greg Webber’s design. In both of their attempts – first in 2008 then again this year – the response from examiners at the US Patent Office has been identical: the design submitted by the Kelly Slater Wave Company is “unpatentable over Webber.” It is too similar to Greg Webber’s design for a patent to be granted.
Click the link for all the shore breaking details.
[Link: Swellnet.com.au]
Webber and Slater may fight on this for years and hold the advancement and building of the first wave pool. They should be getting together and creating something that could be even bigger rather than competing and ending up with something less than the best.
Webber has the technology and patents and Slater has the fame and exposure. Together they could be awesome.
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