So, I'm perusing this mornings CoinsWeekly newsletter, and stumbled across the article "The Legal Battle between...." Basically, the suits & counter-suits involve the minting of colorized coins for circulation & who "owns" the technology & whether there are patent infringements. It's worth reading, if only to reinforce the notion that pettiness is not monopolized by any one faction - it is wide spread among governments. I envision that one day a while back, there was an international meeting of lawyers, & a group of Canucks & Aussies were hanging out at the bar (oh, that's an unintended pun!). Someone said "You know, I need some work, how about we create a battle between our Mints to determine who has the right to mint colorized coins for circulation! We'll all make a fortune & the Mints will end up with egg on their faces!" (Did you here about the lawyers who went out fishing & their boat capsized. They swam 2 miles back to land through shark infested waters & non of them was attacked!!...professional courtesy! ) (Insert expletives & comebacks here!) Anyway, it's a hell of a story & is worth the read if you have time (CoinsWeekly.com) Oh & btw, congrats to NGC on their grading of their 40 millionth coin, apparently the first TPG to reach that level. Think about that a moment...40 million slabs...by only that one TPG!....OMG!!!
Agreed Rick, but please read the article & the arguments being made. (In my attempt to be brief, I was apparently too brief....did not mean to imply defense of patents is petty....it's the arguments in their totality, albeit the article itself is quite short & most likely leaving out some important stuff.)
Basically Canada has the patent on a method to print color on metal and they had brought the issue up a couple years ago but Australia keeps claiming their method is different enough.
Yeah, Canada apparently has a patent & Australia claims it's doing it different enough, using another method....but they are talking about circulation coins - coins to be used to conduct business in their respective countries....you know there's more to it than can be gleaned from this short article....
Here is that CoinsWeekly story. At the end of the text there are links to other articles about the issue ... Christian
Whew. "Canada and Australia have settled a heated dispute over the printing of red poppies on commemorative coins meant to honour veterans and those that perished." (Story) Christian
When I was young I used to use crayons and markers on coins. They're copying my virtuosity creativity way before they did !! So their patents should be null and void. Now to get myself a lawyer and sue both of them and MerrickMint, AmericanMint and all the other ones out there !! LOL
The "legal battle" was about colored circulation coins in general, not just those poppy pieces. https://www.mint.ca/store/news/news-33100032 Roughly 15 million coins that the RAM had produced, and that the RCM wanted to be destroyed. I am glad this could be settled ... Christian
Yeah, great to see a "happy" ending. Looking at the 2 coin pics, it seems to me that they actually may be different techniques since they do have different effects even though they are both "colorized". It's nice when cooler heads prevail!
