New tool for oil changing without mess

[RobertGary1]

This is interesting. 

https://us.verbful.com/products/tool-1

 

-Robert

[Mooneymite]

32 minutes ago, RobertGary1 said:

This is interesting. 

Or custom make your own out of those extremely valuable oil containers you've been saving....

[tmo]

And for the vertically mounted oil filter on the TSIO-360 a 2-liter (~64oz) bottle with the top cut off is said to be just the right size.

[RLCarter]

“The Mintiml™ Flexible Draining Tool is great for draining oil, gasoline, and other fluids from automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, industrial equipment, lawn equipment, and forklifts.”

Airplanes aren’t mentioned 

My IA uses them all the time, along with homemade stuff as well

[Bolter]

For those that care, the Made in USA version is: https://formafunnel.com/ 

I assume it is the original.  I now see lots of identical knockoffs like this one with funny brand names on Amazon now.  Maybe a USA patent expired?

[Rwsavory]

19 minutes ago, Bolter said:

For those that care, the Made in USA version is: https://formafunnel.com/ 

I assume it is the original.  I now see lots of identical knockoffs like this one with funny brand names on Amazon now.  Maybe a USA patent expired?

There appears to be a patent that's still in effect:  https://patents.google.com/patent/US8668973B2/en?inventor=Kevin+Lohmeier

The product and packaging look identical.  Maybe a licensing deal to expand sales.  It's hard to sell anything online outside of Amazon these days.

[Fly Boomer]

Since some of the packaging and some of the use case pics are the same, I suspect this is more than just a knockoff.

@Rwsavory got here first.

Edited June 3, 2020 by Fly Boomer

[Bolter]

2 hours ago, Rwsavory said:

There appears to be a patent that's still in effect:  https://patents.google.com/patent/US8668973B2/en?inventor=Kevin+Lohmeier

The product and packaging look identical.  Maybe a licensing deal to expand sales.  It's hard to sell anything online outside of Amazon these days.

The one I think is the original is also sold on Amazon, but a higher price, and the only one I saw that says Made in USA.   It may not even be the original.  

The patent was allowed to lapse (non-payment) and is now expired as a result.   It could be that the costs were not justified, or defending against violators was not worth it.  We can all make and sell it now.  The images are probably copyrighted material, but again, may not be worth defending against.  

[carusoam]

Often times... products made by US companies get knocked off in Asia... and sold anywhere by any means...

Brand names are a method of knowing what you are getting...

Merely looking alike, can lead to disappointment...

The form a funnel was the original...

For some reason, some countries don’t want to follow international legal standards... Things like trade marks, patents, sales marks... lose their meaning in some places...

For some reason... Amazon doesn’t have the needed skills to prevent knockoffs from being sold through their site...

PP thoughts only, not an international business man...

Best regards,

-a-

 

[EricJ]

3 hours ago, carusoam said:

For some reason, some countries don’t want to follow international legal standards... Things like trade marks, patents, sales marks... lose their meaning in some places...

US Patents don't apply elsewhere in the world, so if an inventing company doesn't file patents internationally in countries in which it has a market, those markets are free to use US Patented devices.   People have been doing the same here for years, bringing foreign inventions in and making money on them.

And often patents are not written well enough to prevent a work-around where a knockoff won't violate the patent, so knockoffs often survive even when there's a patent if the patent isn't broad enough.

Lived that world for a long time.   It's a minefield and often not productive.