[rollei_list] OT: Kwannon Prototype
- From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:52:54 -0400
At 03:41 PM 7/21/2010, David Sadowski wrote:
>"Yoshida's task was made more difficult by the fact that, before 1945,
>Leitz held all of the major patents for 35 mm. camera production. The
>Leica's patented coupled rangefinder and viewfinder under one roof
>presented a particular problem. As Zeiss discovered with the Contax,
>anyone wishing to market a new 35 mm. camera, had to come up with a
>completely new design that was different from the Leica. (After the
>war, with Germany defeated, this was no longer a problem)."
This is simple twaddle, and Peter knows better --
we have discussed this repetitively on the IDCC,
and he has never attempted to suggest that this bogus bunk is true.
First, Leitz held no relevant patents involving
the Leica camera -- if anything, they impinged on
patents belonging to others when they brought out
the original A. It is one of the huge myths of
all time that Zeiss Ikon (NOT Zeiss -- the
Japanese always confuse these two separate
companies) had to "work around" Leitz patents and
that is just false. See Kuc, inter multa alia, for a discussion of this.
Second, yes, German patents failed to be a
problem after V-J Day: the Allied Control
Commission for the Pacific refused to allow the
German companies to protect their intellectual
property rights, so Canon and Nikon and others
just looted the patent files of Zeiss, Zeiss
Ikon, Leitz, and anyone else they thought to
vandalize. It was theft: pure, simple, raw
theft. Canon and Nikon are both firms founded on
fraud, deceit, dishonesty, and larceny, and the
record is clear on that. The Canon RF cameras
are simply copies (one cannot say, "Chinese
copies" -- "Jap copies" works better) of the LTM
design, and the Nikon RF are a combination of the
Zeiss Ikon RF and lens mount from the Contax RF
and the Leitz shutter design. Theft, folks,
theft. Nary one cent in royalties was ever paid,
though Zeiss stuck it to both companies on a number of occasions since then.
Once the Peace Treaty was signed in 1954, that
restriction on protecting patent rights no longer
applied, as Yashica found out with their "Grey
Baby 44": F&H sued Yashica and won across the
board, obtaining damages and forcing the Yashica
camera off the international market.
Thanks for the clarification. I really find
pre-1946 Canon gear a huge yawn in the great scheme of things.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
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