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General Yo-Yo
21

I’ve read the patent at some point in the past, I think it applies to “north america”, germany and I’m not sure about UK (not sure if it applies to canada but I think so)

when you think about it, how many 5A players are sponsored outside of Duncan?

Jon Rob (Anti-yo, SPYY, YYF) and to what extent? Tyler Severance, Miggy for the most famous ones
I’m wondering if YYF worked stuff out with Duncan
And of course Matsuura Takeshi, but we know that YYJ made a deal with Duncan for that to happen (the signature throw that is)

But what use for a company to sponsor a 5A player if they can’t really develop some throws for this player?

I think that’s another discussion all together.

22

I heard that it only applied in the US and and some European country in an interview with Duncan.

23

I hope they stick to how it is now, it bothers me enough already as a 5A player

24

They can make a throw that is tailored for 5a, they just can’t SAY it’s tailored for 5a, and they can’t use 5a to promote said yoyo in videos and such. Also, they cannot make CWs unless they strike a deal with Duncan (like YYJ).

At least, that’s the way I see it.

25

I think that’s the way it is

SPYY did it (Pure, Trainwreck, respectively Jon Rob and Tyler Severance signature)
YYF did it (Severe)

but back on topic, as you said, they can’t use actual 5A to promote it, therefore it reduces the interest for a company to sponsor a pure 5A player and use that player to promote a 5A tailored throw showing him throwing 5A with said throw.

26

too be fair duncan didn’t really have a problem with yoyofactory till they started, producing counterweights and showing how too use them as such in their videos, before that, there was a ton of 5A video’s that, from what I can tell duncan could care less about. So what I gatherd from the situation is that you can produce videos and such, just not print 5A yoyo on the lable or sell the yoyo with a counterweight. Then again that whole thing may have constricked things a bit.

27

IMO YYF Opened a breach in doing that

again as a 5A player, I’m not very happy with how the things are right now, but then again, as long as it doesn’t affect me too much and I still can find custom CWs on “black market”, I’ll be fine.

28

I don’t understand why duncan would care so much about other companies selling counterweights, I mean counterweights are pretty easy to come by, and you can just make your own. Heck, I just drilled a hole in one of the dice I had laying around and used that as my counterweight, saved a few bucks

29

Simply because they own the patent on it. As the patent owner they are obligated to protect it or loose it. A large part of protecting it is telling infringers to stop infringing on their patent.

As a private party you are free to make all of the counter weights you want for your own use. As soon as you start selling or advertising them you are infringing.

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30

Just like how Yoyofactory has hubstacks and Yoyojam has the Solid Spin System and weight rings, Duncan has counterweights. They thought of those ideas and don’t like it if some other company or person is also copying their ideas. Same with if 2 stories were very similar, the original author would be able to sue.

31

I didn’t know that, thanks for putting things in perspective.

But you can’t really compare hubstacks to CWs, there is not a style entirely based on hubstacks

32

Still technically a patent that affects whether or not a costumer will buy that product.

33

yes but as we talk about sponsored players, I feel this is unfair for the players

players from all styles should have the same chance to get sponsored. because of that patent, only a handful of dedicated 5A players will have the chance to be sponsored.

and thanks to duncan restrictive sponsoring policy (they refused to sponsor Zammy, who is an outstanding player and human being, who is now with, arguably, the fastest growing manufacturer on the planet), it basically means that 5A as a style will never be promoted as well as other styles.

I wouldn’t mind if Duncan was really pushing the 5A style, innovating (don’t get me started on the lit up dice, I like them, but my first exploded after a week and a half, they’re not even suitable for double dice), developing attractive products (like high end, high performance 5A setups, balanced CWs for DD for example, they’re not even sponsoring Iskandar Shah who is the best DD player on the planet as far as I know), all we have from Duncan as far as 5A equipment are a couple of outdated throws, with the latest innovation being to stick a bunch of LED in it.

They do have outstanding 5A players in their team, don’t get me wrong, but they’re obviously not willing or not able to put some decent money in development in the style (it’s economic, whoever invests in 5A right now will lose money for the next couple of years, and lots of it as R&D ain’t cheap).

Of course foreign brands could do it, but there are none big enough to actually have the means to do it, and because of the patent, they would be prevented to access the biggest market of all (USA)

As a result, sponsoring a 5A player is pointless unless he is really an outstanding player, but even then, the results on sales would be average at best.

And what some people seem to fail to understand is that sponsoring is basically business, a sponsored player is expected to influence on the brand image therefore promote (i.e. sell) the brand.

it’s a vicious circle, preventing the style to grow as much and as fast as the others.

I’m not judging anymore, as said above, I didn’t know that they were bond by law to enforce their patent. but nonetheless, it does affect the few dedicated 5A players such as myself and will impact their chance to get sponsored (well, I’m not good enough for that anyways, not even close)

sponsoring and yoyo business are not all rainbows and unicorns. But Solid spin axles and hubstacks patents don’t have nearly the same impact on the community and the players as 5A as a style has. And the patent issue will and is preventing new players, young players, to dedicate themselves to the style.

Alright, I feel it’s time for me to show some Duncan love ^^

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