Pretty much all "odd" and/or "extinct" shapes are products of trying to get around the Legaignoux brothers patent. Just look at Peter Stiewe' patent that Windchaser put a link to. The read in the description is amazing. I don't buy any of it. And I can't believe that anyone would think that this concept would work. Maybe Eleveight kites will have this shape???? Are they licensed to produce the Bow kite???? Again, you should read the description of this "innovation". It is worth it.
http://patentimages.storage.googleapis. ... 844875.pdf
The story that fits is that the Legaignoux brothers wanted nothing to do with being a kiteboarding manufacture. They just wanted to license others to produce, sell, and have the liability associated with kiteboarding. The Legaignoux brothers wanted nothing to do with running a company. They just wanted their reward for their R&D without any further hassles. This was a fight at first with all of the "big names" we know about ripping off or skirting around the Legaignoux brothers patents. Later the Legaignoux brothers gave up on the patent infringement fight, got with Best, and said "you deal with this bulls--t and we will take a cut of what ever you can get".Flyboy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2017 10:13 pmI'm sorry: are you saying that Best purchased the rights to the patent (& patent royalties) from Bruno? How long did Bruno's patent run & which companies actually paid royalties? I know ... it's a complicated history much discussed in the past, but is there any clear information on this?
This next part is a little reading in between the lines, but it seems that the Legaignoux brothers were giving the middle finger to the portion of the industry that had been ripping them off for so many years. Best was the most hated brand among the big names in kiteboarding. And they still are to some degree with most distributors (middle men) like GraemeF - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2397078 - holding that hate for direct to market brands to this day - It was common for reps/team riders of other brands (Naish?) to let air out of the Best bus tires at kite events. So giving the patent fight to Best, who had good reason to dislike the other brands, was that middle finger to all of those a-holes in the industry lying, cheating, and stealing from the original inventors.
The story would make a great movie. Some of us may actually be flying and buying kites from some of the bad guys.