It appears that SEARS ripped off this dudes idea.

As a side question:
If you were a CEO of a company and had to decide where to make your widget where would you make it? In the USA or China?

Well that's shitty of them.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

As much as we bitch about patents in the Internet and software world - this is an area where they would seem to be needed. Though perhaps pretty useless if they don't prevent copying?

I'm ordering a Bionic Wrench tonight. Not only because it looks really handy but because I want to support American Jobs.

*engineering *news

Adding video to channels (Engineering, News) - requested by ant.

>> ^Darkhand:

I'm ordering a Bionic Wrench tonight. Not only because it looks really handy but because I want to support American Jobs.


No kidding maybe this issue will go viral for them.

>> ^bobknight33:

It appears that SEARS ripped off this dudes idea.
As a side question:
If you were a CEO of a company and had to decide where to make your widget where would you make it? In the USA or China?


No CEO at SEARS has that choice. They're a publicly traded company.

Making a moralistic appeal to SEARS is the same as making a moralistic appeal to your computer when it crashes.

Cool, that's my dad's Christmas present taken care of!

Fuck our corporate overlords.

Sears believes in America? Sears believes in Sears.

Sears is the most ghetto-ish store around up here, is that true of other places? Are Sears generally more run down? less modern?

Sweden. I'd have the Swedes put together my widgets. It's not cost effective, but I'd like to knock them down a peg.>> ^bobknight33:

It appears that SEARS ripped off this dudes idea.
As a side question:
If you were a CEO of a company and had to decide where to make your widget where would you make it? In the USA or China?

The report doesnt say if the guy had patented his invention beforehand, they only imply it was expensive ($50,000). But it was the thing he needed. Otherwise he would have been screwed by any other store the same way.

>> ^ravioli:

The report doesnt say if the guy had patented his invention beforehand, they only imply it was expensive ($50,000). But it was the thing he needed. Otherwise he would have been screwed by any other store the same way.


Even if he already had a patent it sounds like Sears would try and use that 1950s design as prior art in order to nullify any claim on originality he might attempt to uphold.

Really hate seeing this sort of behaviour by American companies - this whole problem with companies being legally obliged to maximise profits doesn't exist outside of the USA and seems to be a big contributor to the lack of industrial jobs available.

>> ^deathcow:

>> ^Darkhand:
I'm ordering a Bionic Wrench tonight. Not only because it looks really handy but because I want to support American Jobs.

No kidding maybe this issue will go viral for them.


I hope so, I buy my appliances from sears because they seem to last the longest. But I have to say I was really upset to see what they did here.

>> ^dag:

As much as we bitch about patents in the Internet and software world - this is an area where they would seem to be needed. Though perhaps pretty useless if they don't prevent copying?


You can only patent a specific implementation. All Sears has to do is make their magic wrench work slightly differently and they're in the clear.

It was a shitty thing to do, but they might be in the clear legally.

Added the Amazon link to the 6 inch version. They also sell them in 8 and 10 inch.

^Thanks Fletch. I might just pick one up at Amazon.

"As we know, every $64 spent on American made goods can create 200,000 jobs".

Really? Seems like it should be easy to fix this unemployment problem. I'm gonna go spend $64 today and create 200,000 new American jobs all on my own.

*promote vote whoring

Self promoting this video back to the front page; last published Wednesday, November 14th, 2012 6:25pm PST - promote requested by original submitter deathcow.

I hate these bullshit moralizing segments about how decent honorable American workers are losing their jobs to the perfidious Chinese. Why should we value American jobs more than Chinese ones? If the American workers were being replaced by robots, I could appreciate the concern, but that's not what's happening. They're being replaced by other human beings. The only way this counts as a tragedy is if you value the well-being of the average American more than that of the average Chinese person, and that, I submit, is a morally bankrupt position. It's the same kind of attitude that leads Americans to bemoan the loss of even a single American life to foreign terrorists, but not bat an eyelash at hundreds of thousands of foreign deaths at American hands.

This guy's first mistake was to give Sears any slack at all by agreeing not to sell his product anywhere else. The issue has nothing to do with things being made in China at all. It has to do with being a shrewd businessman, which as we all know, means to assume the other guy is always trying to fuck you, and then fucking him harder and faster. I feel bad for him and everyone else involved but come on, he committed to one company on a one season deal?

If this guy had a decent strategy, then this Christmas his product would be selling at every store but Sears.

> The only way this counts as a tragedy is if you value
> the well-being of the average American more than that
> of the average Chinese person


hmmm yes good thinking there... I'll remind my kids if they cant find a job to check in Shanghai, China.

Just ordered two of the 10-inch variety.

Sears appears to be selling a *dupe.