1st Ever Paintball Gun Patent Print Autographed by inventor James C Hale

[The Great Equalizer]

Interesting piece of history assuming it is authentic. The blurry picture and new eBay account would make me nervous.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/365147832161?_skw=paintball&itmmeta=01J9EYJ8S04K5E40PESPZNGAWJ&hash=item550481bf61:g:D-IAAOSwPSlmy9Q2&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnGl9mcgzCX5VZ2FREr6ewx4CxBJkMcKFFkwIsIehqyKnhUsoXgr88jvmjiZkjdsDBsg5nAEMThXAhMWS6362eCk8AJ5WA1RtTkePmuLwLd7YqQNJqWZT9yQl6HnC7rartNnuSXfzVTM7blFetiKTlCOhj2qZE9n5lntN2fJPMli0qBNIUQ4Oel2ItMO3w%2BMp%2Bgc4Vv7ceQqzfAnMep5NgHX2LL2o3zlL3W2HRa4kkQ8TWy%2FjpMclgmwsJBWAWH1aM%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-yMyd7LZA

[Chemical-x.....ahain]

while looking I found this, im pretty sure Kidde is the fire extinguisher company assigneeKIDDE RECREATION PRODUCTS, INC.) - Google Patents

[Chemical-x.....ahain]

Further reading found this.
The Ongoing History of Paintball, SunyJim's Paintball Club (ody.ca)

definitely worth a look.

[SignOfZeta]

It’s a cool item but the way it’s explained isn’t %100 correct. There is no “birth” of paintball since the guns predated the first game (and this patent, supposedly) by many many years.

[redsquirrel]

That’s neat. Guy appears to be local to me so may try to check it out and see if he’s got any other interesting paintball history.

[Axel]

Maybe I have been watching too much Pawn Stars. I 100% believe it is authentic, but I don't know how I could possibly convince anyone else of that fact if I decide to sell it one day. Not like James C. Hale is an authenticable celebrity with a known signature to compare it to

[flyweightnate]

I don't feel like paying extra for a signature, but i absolutely am looking to make myself a poster with this drawing.

[Chuck E Ducky]

That would make a cool T Shirt

[The Inflicted]

Talk about your unenforced IP.

[flyweightnate]

Talk about your unenforced IP.

Yeah, it's weird now that I think about it. There are entire companies set up that you literally type in the patent number, and which page you want, and they make a poster out of it.

... so is a patent drawing technically copyrighted?

[The Inflicted]

Yeah, it's weird now that I think about it. There are entire companies set up that you literally type in the patent number, and which page you want, and they make a poster out of it.

... so is a patent drawing technically copyrighted?

Generally no. As a general rule you can't copyright something that's going to be a government record. It somewhat defeats the purpose of a patent (the purpose being to communicate to others what your protected inventions or designs are) if they can't freely see what it is you want protected.

However, I was referring to the patent on the Nelspot itself. The design was freely copied and cloned hundreds of times before it expired.

[DocsMachine]

However, I was referring to the patent on the Nelspot itself. The design was freely copied and cloned hundreds of times before it expired.

-Patents are good for 17 years, as I recall. If that counts from the day of filing, the patent expired in '89. From the date issued, '91.

By at least mid-'88, according to an APG I just flipped through, nobody yet made a clone or knockoff. Any Nelson-based pump was actually based off a Nelson. Literally a 007 with a barrel extension, back-bottle or "California air" valve body, and maybe a feed neck soldered on in place of the top tube.

Even the early Bushmasters were just body kits to put on your 007.

When were the first from-scratch clones first offered? That is, Nelson-based with no factory Nelson parts. VintageRex says both the Bushmaster and the Phantom came out in '88... Did they make an agreement with Nelson, or was it generally considered so close to expiration it wasn't worth fighting?

Then again, it's worth remembering that Nelson was one of the premier manufacturers of paintballs, so may have simply figured that A, it was so close the patent wasn't worth fighting for, and B, the more markers in general there were out there, the more paint they'd sell.

On the third hand, it's also worth noting that things were a lot less litigious back then- people put ideas out and/or deliberately didn't patent things (like Tom Kaye and HPA ) in order to help the sport grow.

And, on the fourth hand (I never was much good at anatomy) and while I'm speculating wildly it's also possible the actual patent holder, by the late 80s, had perhaps retired, and really didn't care at that point.

Personally, I'd love to read a good solid write up of all that, but I suspect at this point, that's no longer possible.

Doc.

[Chappy]

Wasn’t it about 15 years ago that about 50 of these popped up for sale along with like nib Nelson’s with the sticker and the leather holster? I seem to remember the gun wasn’t actually a 007, and that was somewhat controversial lol. Maybe I’m crazy.

[Rusty Brass]

Probably the 707, the gun foresters and ranchers used to mark trees and livestock. Think they were first made back in the 50's.

[The Inflicted]

707s are worth considerably more than the more familiar Nelspots these days.

[Pyrate Jim]

I've seen two of these before. One was in the office of Bob Maguire of the Paintball Training Institute in 2006, the other was in an army surplus store that used to carry paintball supplies maybe 6-7 years ago. That one was for sale, framed with an actual marker inside the frame. The owner was asking way too much for it.
As I understand it, there were 500 signed & numbered versions of that format that were auctioned off.

The U.S. Patent Office used to have an easily searchable database online, I perused it often and it contained quite a few different designs dating back to the 50's.
I think the term used was "Frangible Projectile Delivery" or some such. Oddly enough, nearly half of those patents were issued to the U.S. Military back then.

[Matt Drown]

FYI, here you go, make your posters for the garage:

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/f2/71/f1/fe12bff56053e2/US3788298.pdf

https://patents.google.com/patent/US3788298A/

Quick note, patents can't be issued to organization, only people. Owners are normally the organization that the person was working for.

Copyright on patent images: https://www.uspto.gov/terms-use-uspto-websites
"Patents are published as part of the terms of granting the patent to the inventor. Subject to limited exceptions reflected in 37 CFR 1.71(d) & (e) and 1.84(s), the text and drawings of a patent are typically not subject to copyright restrictions."

[DocsMachine]

I pulled the image out of that PDF, and cleaned it up slightly. Pretty much the max resolution, and I saved it as a lossless TIF. Have it printed on sepia-toned or parchment type paper and it'll look great.

This one is the gun image alone, and this one includes the patent header text like the eBay article.

Doc.