Is Langmuir copying Fireball fixtures? Wouldn't surprise me

Fixture Tables
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Not sure if this is old news or not, but I was perusing the Langmuir website today for the first time in a while and I came across a few table fixtures that look identical to the fence blocks. They also have magnetic 1-2-3 blocks. How much you wanna bet they’re not even square?

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Yes they are copying all the Fixtures, it’s disappointing that they have an opportunity to design their own line of fixtures, but choose to straight up copy instead. It’s a missed opportunity to advance welding and fabrication world with a new idea.

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When a private equity firm acquires a company, it often leads to questionable practices, shortcuts, and a lack of integrity in competition. FirBall dedicated time and effort to educate the public about this type of tool and actively promoted it across all social media platforms. Shame.

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Very true, and very sad for American companies. Really any/all companies, but we have a LOT of these acquisitions impacting our companies. I think it is probably fair to say this is a perversion of the spirit of capitalism, but I’m not an economist or scholar.

–Larry

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I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I was a cabinet maker as a first/second/third? career. Some of these fixtures are very common in the woodworking world, either as precision spacers or drilling aides. Yes, different materials and specs, but I do not think, for instance, that some of these designs are patentable, as they are otherwise common. I am sure some of Fireball’s fixtures are patentable, but some are not, and therefore “copyable.” Jason, you can fill us in on anything about your IP situations, but often times, having a patent attorney retained is just not worth it.

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Well yeah, the 1-2-3 blocks definitely aren’t patentable. Those have been around forever in one form or another.

I just thought it was funny that Langmuir is a company that makes their own fixture tables and tools, and they suddenly have fixtures that look strikingly similar to Fireball fixtures that already existed first.

The other funny thing is that all of their other table fixtures look identical to Buildpro.

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Are you sure on that? I bet there offshore.