So I am probably gonna start a homemade, made to order counterweight company. But I can sell them on the B/S/T, right? I know some company, I think Yoyojam or Diamond Noir has the patent. So that’s what I’m asking. If another company has a patent on a 5a, can I sell counterweights?? If I can, look out on the B/S/T.
Probably not. Duncan holds the patent, you probably will have to check with them.
I dont think you can. You’d have to ask Duncan. Or just sell dice with holes in them…
Not legally you can 
Duncan and Steve Brown are listed on the patent. Probably best not to try selling them as counterweights but using a loophole in patent law and some semantics you could, as has been suggested, sell them as something else.
Personally I can’t stand the idea of patents in this business, it takes some of the fun out of a very DIY community. Imagine if Tom Kuhn patented the bearing yoyo, where would that have left this sport/hobby we all love?
Make keychains. If a buyer were to decide that they would serve another purpose, good for them.
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Either a. contact duncan and ask if you can sell them
or b. sell them as something else. Like stookie said, keychains.
I would contact Duncan, the worst they can do is say no.
If they do say no, you’ll just have to make some suspiciously counterweight-like key chains.
…or you could call them spin top buttons…
BAD idea. You don’t want to get sued.
I think you can just sell them as beads for making necklaces. I don’t think there are any patents on them.
I was making a joke about YoYoFactory’s spin top buttons, it’s their way of getting round the counterweight patent. I think they’re genuinely used for spin tops too but I’ve only ever really seen them used as counterweights.
Spintop buttons sir. You’ll be fine. Just come up with some other name, and never mention counterweight or 5a on your thread.
Call em Twirly Cubes!
Call them cellphone charms. You know, those things dangling from your phone?
No, you need to do this WRONG.
Whatever you do, DO NOT call them counterweights. Maybe make a “companion product” and then you bundle them in to the deal.
I thought YYF didn’t get away with the whole spin tip button thing.
Duncan told them to stop and they did.
You shouldn’t be infringing on anybody’s intellectual property, and that’s what you’re doing by selling counterweights(which is, illegal). YoYoJam can do it because they PAY Duncan for the right to sell them, I’m sure if you give Duncan $.50 out of every dollar counterweight you sell they’d be happy to give you the rights.
Nobody is going to come knocking on your door demanding money or that you stop, because I’d be impressed if you sold twenty of these, but it’s bad form to do something you know damn well isn’t right.
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