SRAM to begin licensing narrow/wide chainrings

[nick18]

http://singletrackworld.com/2014/01/sram-to-begin-licensing-narrowwide-chainrings/

 

Just read this link and was wondering what the impact would be on Woolftooth etc?

[ThePubSA]

As far as i know NW chainrings arent new technology and the origional inventor never patent the deisgn.So SRAM can only patent their X-glide ans X-sync style of NW components,and are realising this by branching out their technology with chromag etc..

 

Should mean a start to more choice and cheaper prices

[ThePubSA]

As far as i know NW chainrings arent new technology and the origional inventor never patent the deisgn.So SRAM can only patent their X-glide ans X-sync style of NW components,and are realising this by branching out their technology with chromag etc..

 

Should mean a start to more choice and cheaper prices

 

Ok i got 1/2 of what i remembered right ......... expired 70's patent ..

 

On a side note, we asked Race Face why everyone has been able to produce narrow/wide rings without infringing on any patented designs from SRAM. The surprising answer, is that the concept of narrow-wide chainring goes back to an expired patent from the 1970′s. Race Face, and we’re assuming everyone else other than SRAM, has designed the tooth profiling within the scope of that expired patent, to avoid any patent infringement and create a ring with excellent chain retention properties. Sram will likely be able to patent some of the aspects of XX1, though companies like Race Face have been very careful to design their own versions of this what’s-old-is-new-again technology.

Edited January 7, 2014 by 2Nutz

[MTBc]

sort of sounds like apple patenting the rounded square rectangle shape of an ipad (Patent No. D670,286)