Suppressor Build

I am going to send in the forms to build a proto-type suppressor that has a registered tube with interchangeable baffles and end-cap to allow any caliber from .17 to .45. I may try to design a multiple-mount system as well. Might even push the limit and have tube extensions to allow for heavier weapons. Apparently through some over-site, the BATF doesn't concern themselves with design and components, just the tube with a serial number.

 

That sounds pretty cool.

You might want to consider patenting it. I can help you with the patent search if you want.
BTW a 1 year provisional is ~$100 and you can do it over the internet in about 10-40 minutes. The real deal, 17 years, is about $3-8k and will take about 2 years until issuance, if granted.

 

More like 20-30 K each if you get this response from the Examiner "Rejected because this ______ was anticipated by______" now you need a patent attorney. I have been into that storm once too often and have nice documents to display; that is all.

Overbore

 

That's the reason for a good prior art search. To have your bases covered. If the idea is trully novel you shouldn't need an attorney as there won't be much if any prior art or need for litigation. And with the prior art search you can see what is out there and then make sure that you don't infringe, so now that you know this info when the examiner comes back with "Rejected because this ______ was anticipated by______" you have a quick reply, "our product/process differs from ________ by this and this " since you already knew about it and planned for it. Actually that info would already be in your patent application so it wouldn't come back for that, thus the need for a good prior art search. anyhow Almost all patents get atleast one send back, if you're ducks are in a row it's not a big deal.

Also, it's the lawyers fees that make it as expensive as you said, not the patenting itself. If you don't know the prior art or can't find it yourself then you need an attorney to find it (time is money). The USPTO doesn't care if you or a lawyer gives them the answers they want. Like I said, if it's trully novel there won't be a question, it's in the cases where you change one minor thing that get's sticky.

BTW Provisional patents aren't examined, they buy you one year to sell the idea, or finish getting your ducks in a row to get a non provisional.

Anyways It's just a suggestion. I have 2 patents both I wrote myself, and patent research experience and I know a former examiner that I can bounce ideas off of. It'd be a shame to trully create something novel and (if you intend) miss out on possibly making some nice scratch from it.

The glass is half full or is it half empty?

 

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=suppressor&FIELD1=&co1=AND&TERM2=firearm&FIELD2=&d=PALL


This is by no means a full search, sub searchs would be required as well and internet, other publications and international patents. 118 in the above link probably 75% are not even relevant. Irregardless on wether you knew or didn't know it existed it's still infringement, but it is the patent holders responsibility to police his/her patent. Read them then cite them in your patent "so and so used a left rear clicker to clink the clanker on their suppressor, ours uses a cleft clocker there by making it easier to clink the clanker etc."

 

oh yeah and the main reason to do the patent search first is to SEE IF YOU CAN EVEN PATENT IT. The more you have to wiggle around the prior art the harder it willbe to patent and the more $ it will cost. At that point you can decide on wether to file for one or not a lot of times it's not worth it. Hence being able to or having someone that can do a good search for free is invaluable if you're an inventor.

 

This very design you mention, was once also attempted by a company known as A.W.C., (http://www.awcsystech.com/),formerly of Texas, and more recently, moved to their New River, Az. address, from here on Deer Valley Rd. in Phoenix, where I live.
I used to make their components on the cnc lathe's for them, then take them to the welder to be made into sealed units. The trouble was, that the registration process with ATF at the time was, that the units had to be made for a single caliber....maybe that has changed. Now that they are the BATFE !!!( more letters=more power?)
I see that most suppressors today are of the sealed types, and only a few anymore are capable of being opened, more or less to clean them. The newer styles no longer need to be cleaned by disassembly, only placed into hot water and shaken a few times, then dumped and left to dry. The neatest ones I have seen are the big cans, for the .50 BMG, and those used on the Ruger pistols that are designed specifically for the Navy Seals, they even fire easily underwater!
A visit to their place was rewarded by a test firing of a specialized Ruger 10/22 rifle, with the entire barrel being replaced with a suppressed one. It was weird! All I heard was the bolt hit, then the bullet impact downrange!!! After a few of those tests, and I helped the welder replace the steel plates in the multiple bullet traps!

Those people did get some very interesting contracts from the D.O.D., and even from the B.L.M. I've always wondered what they needed them for? Bad trees? A prelude to attack by some terrorist squirrels? (IF a suppressed weapon is fired in the woods, and no trees are hit or squirrels scream, does it matter?)
(I Had to lighten it up there, gettin' sorta heavy!)
Yep, they did have some really strange Government contracts, and a helluva lot of them went to some "Islands", for the 9mm's. ( anti-something or another...)
Bill

 

and back to those geese again!! lmao