Hri have just won the Glide battle in USA.
Not sure how thats going to affect us so ive just bought another glide as a spare from Matt at cleansmart.
Here is some of the info taken off another site.
Posted By Lisa Smith-Lydon on 4/10/2007 at 2:01 PM
Many distributors and users have recently received threatening letters from HRI (Harris Research, Inc. parent company of Chem-Dry) requesting that they refrain from manufacturing, distributing or using infringing GreenGlides products....whatever that means.
First let me address the issues of the judgment and resultant injunction:
As many know, we have fought this battle for two and a half years now. Alone. No other company has stood up to HRI. We spent a large quantity of money on attorney fees until we could no longer afford to continue. After two years they bled us dry financially...easy enough for a big corporation to do to a very small, young company like ours. We then represented ourselves, but lack of time, education and background in case law, protocol and procedure in this very complex specialty of patent law made proceeding nearly impossible. The most I was able to do was ask the court to appoint me an attorney (denied) and ask for extensions. Our case was never presented. We were unable to present the massive amount of prior art and arguments as to why our products did not infringe. Mind you, as we struggled along....things were happening in our industry:
Three prominent companies in our industry have joined the fight in the last several months. All of these companies have been enjoined because of the same patents in contention in our case. In fact, in these newer cases there is an additional patent which did not exist when we first entered the fray. All of these companies are working to have the patents in question invalidated. If the patents are invalidated (and there is an extremely high likelihood they will be, or at least the particular claims that are being applied to glide products) it will mean that ALL will be free to manufacture these products in the future.
We carried this battle for a very long time at a very high cost, and now it is time to allow these larger, better funded companies to complete the mission in the courts. We were advised to refrain from spending more money and/or time in order to fight against patents that are basically doomed anyway by these newer attacks. Why kill a dying man? Their fate is sealed already.
We have asked the court to re-open our case and we have filed protest to their handling of the matter, on the judicial side, and by HRI's attorneys. An appeal has been launched. These products are a medical necessity to many, many cleaners and there removal from the market would constitute a hardship.
NOW, to understand the why's and wherefore's of this case is to see the real reasons behind the actions:
This issue has tremendous scope and weight to our industry. This is not about glides. It's about dry, clean carpets and who is "allowed" to provide them.
The patents in question are vaguely written, dubiously obtained and have been misused in order to control an industry. Because HRI does not sell glides or even a glide-like device, there is no competition in the market. They do not sell equipment outside of their franchisee circle. There is no competition with them.
HRI has, and continues to, refuse to license their patents. Large company or small, no license.
Which may cause many to wonder....why do they care? Here's the answer:
HWE cleaners compete with Chem-Dry for market share in the CLEANING market. Chem-Dry's unique selling point has always been 1-2 hour dry times. As technology and design in extractors has improved so much in the last decade, they have scrambled to hold their USP, yet separate themselves from HWE (which they always bashed). This is illustrated in their moves away from bonnet cleaning through portables and to the TM's they consider their flagship units now. Still trying to somehow maintain their differentiation from HWE with the bubble water concept, which when it gets down to the carpet, is really not different at all.
One aspect they feel they can and must fight is glides. If your average HWE guy can get 1-2 hour dry times with a holed glide, it threatens their USP. BUT EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, eliminating glide technology also takes out the other high performance drying tools and systems like 2.5" hose, Vortexes and other big blower units, high lift/cfm units, because relatively few people have the strength to physically use these performance enhancements or powerful machines without a glide, naturally limiting there viability and scope (read threat) in the cleaning market. By repressing glides, they repress the entire high performance/efficiency "carpets CLEAN and DRY in under 2 hour" growth area of our industry. What's more, with a glide even a small woman or child can use a monster TM. No more worries about stress injuries, burned-out employees and a limited potential employee pool. Workman's comp claims go down, time off for injuries, limited career length because of aging....all virtually eliminated with glides.
Understand this battle has nothing to do with glides. It is still very much our contention that glides don't infringe. It is HRI's desperate attempt to suppress the industry (and retain and grow their marketshare) any way they can.