Ceo Leslie Michael Jordan, foundation member of the defunked Pan am North Stars / and former St James North stars, on January 9th 2014 file a Pro se Design Patent, Trademark, and Copyright infringment suit against Professor Brian Copeland et al ( and others), for the illegal use without permission, of their technological cycle of 5th or 4ths and 5ths, also called the spider web pan, and their 26 & 29 inch in diameter "big tenor", what the Professor Copeland called his Genisis G-pan, and where he and the then Government went to the United States, retained and attorney to challenge and revoke any and all Cycle of 5th patent, implementing that its identical to the local works of our steel pan pioneer Anthony Williams, revoking the patent, which allowed the Professor to patent his, alleged G-pan, and also his PHI -pan, using the already patented cycle of 5th or 4ths & 5ths, which had been patented since September 18th 1963 by S.N.S.E, for and in the name of Anthony Williams, said patent was registered as a application for a design, where design laws are protected and provided for along copyright lines, which means; said copyright will last untill 70 years after the authors or inventor death also, no one can revoke a patent that is not their own, as Tampering and Interfearance has been implemented in this revokation, the claim was served on the Professor Febuary 6th 2014, and a defense is to be filed within 28 days after receiving said claim, or judgement maybe entered for the whole amount claimed, the Professor attorney has since failed file to a defense, as there up to their tricks playing for time, therefore:S.N.S.E. has file for Judgment for the whole amount claimed, as this is the proceedure of the Hall of Justice Supreme High Court, which happens to be a Rule of Law.
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Case dismissed with the claimant paying the defendant's costs !
This means that the courts considered this a nuisance lawsuit.
Congratulations , Mr. Copeland.
I started having my doubts of any validity of his claim , when he didn't seem to understand the meaning of the technology being placed in the public domain.
If that is the case , then no one can claim copyright.
That ship has sailed!
Hello Glenroy
Yes the ship sailed quite a long time ago. WHat many do not realise or recall is that the GPan patent was, in part, an attempt to cover lost ground for the benefit of Trinidad and Tobago. This is why we took great pains to describe the traditional instrument and made reference to the early pioneers in the descriptive sections (NOTE -- NOT IN THE CLAIMS SECTION. NOTE: The Claims are what define a patent - this is where many get confused). The intention there was to forestall any more attempts to claim ownership of the traditional instrument.
Better late than never post. This was around the time I took a holiday from WST. Sidd here.
The topic has arisen again in 2015 on several posts. The question of understanding Patents and Patents concerning the steel pan invention in particular. We have to give Tony Williams and Leslie Jordan credit for attempting to register the idea of the 4ths and 5ths note arrangement on pan. This was not a Patent registration as such. It was more of a Copyright design system. but because the steelpan itself is in public domain with hundreds of thousands of pans made each year with the 4ths and 5ths over the years, it was not possible to allow anyone sole rights including Williams. However some years ago a fella tried to Patent an arrangement of 4ths and 5th but did the arrangement differently from Williams own. He failed the patent test. So Patents offices know about Williams 4th and 5ths through the Patent of the G-pan and this is what persons in the pan world should now know. The attempt of the G-pan Patents allowed Patent offices across the globe to know that an original steel pan exits in the public domain with an arrangement of 4th and 5ths notes, so that no one can now go to the Patent offices across the globe and try to Patent the steelpan as was done by the pioneers. There is no Patents existing for Williams 4ths and 5ths pan notes arrangement and placement but still no one can Patent that now. In this way it is protected. God loves the pan and pan makers.Its a T&T original. No one can take that away from us. We must have that conviction.
Remember Glen, Leslie is not a Lawyer so a lot of things he may not know as "Public Domain", but he tried his best to explain to us the best he could, I still say, if he had a better Lawyer it would have been different. Sometimes people lose a case due to Loop Holes and so forth, at least somebody tried.
Case dismissed even before it started... I guess the judge was as befuddled as we were with what the claimant was trying to say. I am even more amazed by the comments on this post that clearly show that very few, if any, have even bothered to read the G-Pan and PHI patents.
Although the topic never arose in the hearing, just for the record, neither of those patent submissions claim ownership of the 4ths and 5ths note layout. The patent documents simply utilize the layout pattern just as the hundreds of tuners do - the very same tuners from whom the claimant wants to extract copyright fees. Both documents detail the evolution of the steelpan and acknowledge the work of Tony Williams. You just have to read the documents or, even better, have a qualified lawyer read it for you.
That leads me to my final comment ... after laboring since 1983 in steelpan technology research and development, I can now safely say that, especially in this country, the only people who benefit from innovation/invention efforts are the lawyers.
ORDER- Brian Copeland v SNSE dated 26-6-2014.pdf
I am very Sorry Leslie Jordan lost the Case, Lots of time if you don't have a very Good Lawyer that's what usually happens,
This effort further proves that Anthony "Muffman" Williams (and his associates) were even more genius that we ever imagined.
The fact that his Intellectual Property rights were protected and registered at the Red House on 18/SEP/1963 and now duly logged and lodged with the Intellectual Property Office - Ministry of Legal Affairs, Trinidad ... on 17/NOV/2009 is fantastic. I also await with bated breath to see the co-patent registered with the USPTO.
Leslie Michael Jordan, I also humbly but earnestly suggest (pending proper legal opinion) for posterity, that you also log and lodge this with the Repository of Steelpan History at the Digital Library Services Centre, The Alma Jordan Library, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies.
As for 20/20 hindsight, I agree with Glenroy R Joseph that the steelpan pioneers of yester-year might not have been as "tuned-in" (pun intended) to look after protecting his/their rights, but those in authority should have and can yet do it, in terms of a cultural utility patent for the Steelpan of Trinidad & Tobago.
Somebody dropped the ball and then somebody tried to pick-up but the courts will determine whether it was a pass or a foul. Either way, Liam Teague: ‘We have just begun to scratch the surface’ of steelpa... said it right and as the late Terry Joseph wrote:
We're getting there, slowly but surely, step by step.
Respect
In hindsight people may criticize the older pan pioneers and tuners for not protecting their interests , but in this case i hold the steelbandsmen blameless.
in the early sixties , pan tuners were just beginning to be aware that they could make a few dollars from tuning , but patents was probably last thing that panmen and tuners would have thought of.
Even to the better educated pan people , the thought of patents would have been foreign territory.
But hindsight is 20-20.
I spent some time in panyards and around tuners back then , and that's probably not something most of them would have given any thought
If there is anyone to blame , it would have been the so called caretakers of the culture, politicians and elected officials who should have been protecting the pan as part of our culture.
Unfortunately, this was also a time when the steelband and its people were looked down upon by the people who would have known , the educated middle and upper class professionals.
So if Tony Williams had the foresight to patent his creation in 1963 , I'm very impressed , and I wish him the best of luck
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