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Comment by fasthands9 | Hacker News Reader

Mostly unrelated, but I don't think SawStop is releasing its patent anytime soon like the article states. That SawStop press release was the CEO saying they would do so if the CPSC rule was passed, but the rule wasn't voted on. And even then they were only releasing one of their hundreds of patents.

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They've pretty explicitly been willing to release all of the relevant patents. The truth is it was always a red herring for their competitors. The major players all have systems that don't rely on these patents.

Lawsuit discovery showed all of them had developed their own technology that was fine, patent wise. But it would have eaten into their profit.

Personally, I have an altendorf handguard sliding table saw, which will stop as fast as the sawstop, but not destroy the blade.

That table saw looks very nice, but also $7,000? That's not the same market that people are talking about.

I'm not so sure if other companies have the ability at a sub $2000 price point! Bosch came out with their own system that they thought was different. The product was on shelves for a year and then SawStop successfully sued. If a major company like that is unable to do it even after their lawyers gave them the clearance, I'm a bit dubious it's that easy.

Sure it's a pro saw.

Evidence from the lawsuits says they could do it at the 299 or 399 price point. Cost per saw was like 50 bucks.

Damn. I’ve wanted one of those for years. What model and what did it set you back?

I think free access to use the patented tech is only a part of the answer to building such a mechanism, and definitely a good first step. Looks to me like the build quality would make an even larger difference to the success of the device. For example:

> The fuse wire is designed to be stable enough to resist stretching or thinning over time despite the intense repeated vibrations from the saw use, ensuring it doesn’t prematurely release the spring.

"Just" some bad QA and the wire releasing the mechanism breaks too early needlessly destroying the saw, or too late needlessly destroying the hand. A patent won't fix that for the manufacturer.

I agree on all of this. But the others had already done the r&d. Take a look at the documents in the Massachusetts table saw injury lawsuit, from 2006, an example.

I recall reading that the majority of their patents were expiring in the next few years and the one that they’ve offered to not enforce (rather than release) is the important one that doesn’t expire until the 2030s.

Yup -- Planet Money did a podcast about the sawstop and talked about the patents and controversy: https://www.npr.org/2024/09/20/1200551215/sawstop-steve-gass...

It says that at the end of the article.

> Despite previous litigation against would-be imitators of their safety brake, SawStop has committed to dedicating its original patent to the public when these new regulations go into effect.

My comment is pointing out that the regulations will never go into effect.

The scheduled vote on the regulations was postponed this year, and it seems unlikely it would pass once it becomes Republican majority next year.

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