Patents

When do the patents for the design of the Mclaren F1 expire?, and;

When they do does anyone think other manufacturers will adopt the cockpit layout ?

I believe that Design patents last 14 years...i have a pdf copy of the US patent and the UK patent for the body, transmission, oil resevoir, front shear center subframes, and active aerodynamics (air brake) that I can share but I can not upload them myself, they are big files (maybe we can talk Erik to post them if i send them to him)

But I digress...the US patent for the 3 seat layout was granted July 23rd 1996, using simple math I calculate that the patent will end in the US on July 23rd 2010.

And as for some major car company using the three seat layout....only they can tell us that. I absolutely love the idea of buying a two door subaru WRX or somthing where i can drive rom the middle...the thought makes me happy!! So we can only hope that some companies will use the layout.

Unfortunately I don't think that the offset center drivers seat makes sense for any platform other than RMR. I would love to see more of those though. Especially affordable ones.

I believe that Design patents last 14 years...i have a pdf copy of the US patent and the UK patent for the body, transmission, oil resevoir, front shear center subframes, and active aerodynamics (air brake) that I can share but I can not upload them myself, they are big files (maybe we can talk Erik to post them if i send them to him)


Oh sure - twist my arm why don't you. ;)

I'd be happy to assist with the sharing. My email is @hotmail if you did not already know.

>8^)
ER

o i know it...i believe i have shared stuff before in this fasion. I will send all of them to you tomorrow, unfortunatly i have them all stored on my work computer.

can't wait, should be good

unfortunately i don't think that the offset center drivers seat makes sense for any platform other than rmr. I would love to see more of those though. Especially affordable ones.

rmr ?

RM = Rear-Mid-Engined as there are Front-Mid-Engined cars as well.

The final R would be for Rear Wheel Drive.

>8^)
ER

Erik you should have like 4 e-mails from me with two patents in each of them....and an additional e-mail with a pic for the backgrounds thread....let me know if you got them or not.

I did receive them and it appears the files all came through okay. :)

I am a little behind on some other projects I have on my plate, so it will probably be sometime tomorrow before I get them hosted for everyone.

>8^)
ER

thats fine...i just wanted to make sure you got them.

Check out page 45 of DA, bottom right hand corner ;)

or here (http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=EPODOC&adjacent=true&locale=en_gb&FT=D&date=19990831&CC=JP&NR=11235988A&KC=A) and here (http://v3.espacenet.com/inpadoc?DB=EPODOC&locale=en_GB&FT=D&CC=JP&NR=10007018A&KC=A) for some more, shared by Flemke over on PH.com

One more

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2280/a7713ffc4.th.jpg (http://img69.imageshack.us/i/a7713ffc4.jpg/)

webslinger's versions are actually in .PDF form, and I'll have them up in just a few more hours. I guess for the UK crowd, that will mean something to read with your Sunday morning spot of tea and crumpets. :p

>8^)
ER

Okay - sorry if I left anyone waiting too long. I'm taking my MR2 Spyder out for a drive tomorrow, and before I went it needed an oil change and some other attention. While I was in the middle of that, my parents ambushed me and took me out to dinner, leaving my car to hover on two ramps at the rear and two jackstands in the front while I was gone.

They didn't get me back here until 10pm and then I had to finish the task in a freezing cold garage. It's all sorted now, but don't ever buy a mid-engined car and plan to do the work yourself. Just pay someone else to do it. ;)

Thankfully it was just an oil change this time. I did the coolant once and you don't even want to know what a joy that was. The radiator is in the very front of the car like the F1's, but you add coolant through a little overflow bottle mounted at the very back of the car. :screwy:

= = = = = =

Here are the PDFs - there are 8 files in a ZIP that is about 34MB. I actually haven't even had the chance to look at them yet myself, but I will be eagerly checking them out when I arrive back home tomorrow. I've given a link to MediaFire and Rapidshare below. Please only use the Rapidshare link if MediaFire doesn't work for some reason, as they limit downloads of non-paying customer's files to 10 instances.


MediaFire: http://www.mediafire.com/?5m2ytyqmloj

RapidShare: http://rapidshare.com/files/343742486/F1_patents.zip

All thanks go to webslinger283 in case you weren't paying attention. :thumbsup:

>8^)
ER