P&G’s Gillette Sues Dollar Shave Club
wsj.com
wsj.com
The 4X, for instance is the same as the Dorco Pace 4 blade system, including compatibility between the cartridges/handles. I think Dollar Shave Club may provide unique handles, but the razor blade cartridges themselves are made by Dorco.
Presumably they are purchasing the razor blades from Dorco and importing them.
http://www.uspto.gov/patents-maintaining-patent/patent-litig...
> Patent infringement is the act of making, using, selling, or offering to sell a patented invention, or importing into the United States a product covered by a claim of a patent without the permission of the patent owner. Further, you may be considered to infringe a patent if you import items into the United States that are made by a patented method, unless the item is materially changed by subsequent processes or becomes a trivial and nonessential component of another product. A person “infringes” a patent by practicing each element of a patent claim with respect to one of these acts. Further, actively encouraging others to infringe patents, or supplying or importing components of a patented invention, and related acts can also give rise to liability in certain cases.
(If you think about it, of course importing is infringement. Otherwise, patents are worthless: anything patented would simply be made overseas, if they aren't already.)
(I didn't read the article, but that's the point I think GP was trying to make.)
Edit: To which PG would probably argue that DSC is the largest distributor of the infringing blades and represents the greatest infringement overall.
It's a solid product, at a great price, with excellent customer service. I recently had a package lost by USPS (they got confused because someone had forwarded mail to my address), and after a single email to Dorco, they sent out a replacement order (despite the fact that they had nothing to do with the original package getting lost).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/business/worldbusiness/29i...
DSC is actually just a blade reseller, so suing them for patent infringement seems odd. Until you consider that this whole lawsuit may be part of a larger drive to either push DSC out of business or buy them out of business, in either case the cost of the lawsuit will contribute.
PS - As an aside I don't think Dorco's blades are as good as Gillette's blades yet. However I highly welcome a more competitive landscape in the cartridge blade market.
Mach3 Turbo: $3.50/blade ($2.09 on Amazon S&S).
Fusion: $4.50/blade ($3.17 on Amazon S&S).
ProGlide: $4.90/blade ($2.61 on Amazon S&S).
And since I am comparing it to Amazon's Subscribe & Save, both include delivery and the same level of convenience.
Name brand, 2 blade disposables are a about $1.25/unit on Amazon.
You pay more for the gel strip, and comfort of excess blades. Safety razors are a legitimate alternative to cartridges, disposables are generally terrible compared to either one.
Maintenance can be cut down a sub-minute per use by ignoring the folklore and cutting a few corners (I use a stone once a month for a few seconds (not considered normal) and only strop half a dozen times before each use).
This seems to be one of those curious cases where (at least in Europe and North America!) almost everyone either owns an electric shaver or buys expensive multi-blade cartridges, and has done so for decades. But over time the value added by those cartridges — safety from children's fingers? Certainly not a closer shave — was nullified and actually made negative by their cost. Meanwhile I shave for €5 a year with safety razors.
Is the marketing of cartridges such a strong agent here that the seemingly superior solution is largely ignored? Or am I not seeing the appeal of a Gillette nine-blade turbo-smooth aloë-vera-coated hyper-cartridge?
I sometimes wonder if this phenomenon is limited to the West, and that the rest of the world happily shaves with cheap safety blades or straight edge razors.
edit: typo and pronoun vagueness.
"Distributor" might be a mistranslation or imprecisely phrased.
But suing them in this way isn't good.
Bonus: It cost like a fraction of the price and you don't look like a teenager when shaving :-P
Safety razors are indeniably cheaper long term (although expect to pay $100 ish to get a good handle, brush, bowl, blades, and soap). You'll likely break even after ten years (assuming $1.50 cartridges Vs. 10c blades). You'll also likely receive a closer shave with a safety razor.
That being said... I did the whole safety razor thing. It was fun. But then I switched back to cartridges. Why? In order to get a good close shave with a safety razor while also minimizing the chance of nicks, cuts, and razor burn you need a good quality thick lather.
Unfortunately creating a good thick lather can easily take ten minutes. You cannot really use off the shelf shaving foam or gel because it doesn't provide enough protection for a safety razor.
So ultimately I decided I wanted shaving to be a 10 minute activity in the mornings, and not a 20 minute activity. Also creating lather isn't the most fun thing to do first thing after you wake up, in particular if you're working it hard (as you should).
Cartridges are quick and easy. They're the ultimate lazy man's solution. And you can use off the shelf non-foaming gels (e.g. "King of Shaves Alphagel", "Gillette Fusion ProGlide Clear Shave Gel") in the shower (and, yes, wet-shaves are a must either way, buy an inexpensive non-electrical anti-condensation travel mirror (i.e. you tip hot water into a compartment behind the mirror)).
That said, I always have some disposable ones handy for quick work, misses, or for shaving in the shower.
They're the penultimate solution.
Not shaving is the ultimate in laziness.
Which I adopted, both to saves time, and because it makes me look closer to my age.
But if your natural state is a scraggly, uneven mess, just shaving it off regularly is by far the easiest option.
I was simply pointing out the ultimate in laziness is to not shave at all.
I prefer the shave I get with a brush and shaving soap to the shave I get with lotion and shaving gel, but I prefer the lotion and shaving gel with a safety razor to any shave I can get with a cartridge razor. The lotion and shaving gel doesn't take me any more time than just using gel, either, because I can shave more efficiently.
Is it possible that you have hard water?
It isn't only possible, it is a certainty.
But I am talking about lathering at the start (5 ish minutes) and then several times as you shave to keep the lather in good order (1 minute here, 1 minute there, etc). Otherwise the lather goes flat half way through your face.
Out of curiosity, did you ever try using distilled water? Alternatively, did you by chance give any of the traditional brushless products out there, like Musgo, a try? I use it while traveling and have had good luck with it.
For those interested, there is a service for this very thing now: http://www.tryablade.com/blade
You don't need to make it into a big production. Check out Bevel's instructional video, where you lather directly on your face: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhPbaNAHhA8
Half the time I don't use any kind of cream at all; I just shave right after I jump out of the shower, heating the blade up and moving in short, tight movements. It's not baby smooth but the stubble is gone and i'm out of there in the same amount of time as with cartidges.
The protection you get from a safety razor is by technique, not what lubrication you use. A 30-degree angle and taught skin will trump improper form with the best lather any day.
$100 isn't at all unusual for many starter sets.
As with most things, it's easy to get sucked in and blow $100s on your setup, but you don't have to. I spent <$50 to get started.
I use a $20 safety razor from Amazon. It works better than any cheap disposable with off the shelf gel or foam. I don't use a brush and I don't lather any differently than I did with a disposable.
The safety razor does not shave quite as close but that turns out to be a positive for me (especially in area's other than your face).
I just started laser hair removal on my face, and at $100/session for 2-6 sessions, it'll pay for itself in 1-3 years (I use a fresh blade every week). Plus no shadow/stubble.
Never really understood the purpose of shaving cream - hot water has always been plenty effective enough, and any type of soap or lather or cream makes a mess and leaves my skin oily.
I have a suspicion that, like women's cosmetics, hair shampoo, and neckties, shaving customs solely exist to vacuum money out of people's wallets and be inconvenient.
Subscribing to DSC today, wanted to do that a long time ago anyway.
Do they have any razors that you tend to hold more perpendicular to your face like the older 2-blade Gillette razors, rather than the 3+ blade razors that you tend to hold parallel to your face?
They're somewhat flexible, so you could probably do either approach (I tend to vary and just remove all hair). I like Harry's quite a bit.
I now alternate between Dorco and a safety razor.
They have copied them to such a degree with their name and their advertising it is creating confusion in the marketplace. And that's kind of a litmus test for trademark infringement from what I remember in my business law classes.
> Patent infringement is the act of making, using, selling, or offering to sell a patented invention, or importing into the United States a product covered by a claim of a patent without the permission of the patent owner. Further, you may be considered to infringe a patent if you import items into the United States that are made by a patented method, unless the item is materially changed by subsequent processes or becomes a trivial and nonessential component of another product. A person “infringes” a patent by practicing each element of a patent claim with respect to one of these acts. Further, actively encouraging others to infringe patents, or supplying or importing components of a patented invention, and related acts can also give rise to liability in certain cases.
If the P&G patent isn't valid where the blades are manufactured the manufacturer isn't in violation. It falls down to whoever is importing them. If they could sue the manufacturer then getting patents in one place would make them defacto valid everywhere and punish companies for the actions of their customers who they have no control over.
Why do I have a feeling this will be another one of those cases that expose just how corrupt and broken our patent system is.