Quote:
Originally Posted by drew  Again, according to the patent it was not used incorrectly. |
Here's the abstract from a patent (US 4949587) for an automobile transmission that has a reverse gear.
"A reverse gear mechanism in a vehicle gear transmission having a first shaft, a second shaft, and gear trains associated with the first and second shafts for transmitting the torque from one of the first and second shafts to the other. The reverse gear mechanism includes a reverse drive gear supported on the first shaft, a reverse driven gear supported on the second shaft, and an idle gear assembly interposed in meshing relation between the reverse drive and driven gears. The idle gear assembly is composed of a third shaft, a first idle gear supported on the third shaft and meshing with the reverse drive gear, a second idle gear supported on the third gear and meshing with the reverse driven gear, and a clutch unit interposed between the first and second idle gears for limiting the torque transmitted between the first and second idle gears to a prescribed value. The components of the power transmission mechanism can be designed reasonably and advantageously."
If I were to drive my car in reverse down the freeway and I were to tell the folks I drove over, and the arresting officer, "According to the patent I did not use the transmission incorrectly", the officer's remarks would be unprintable.
A patent doesn't determine what an apples-to-apples comparison should be in a product promotion. You will need to be whistle-clean when you go live. You might even want to put it into a private space and let us beat on it.
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