When I fiddled around with some old Suntour Cyclone brakes yesterday, I was again amazed how exactly the quick release resembled Campagnolo's, which is covered with "Patent" markings. This brought up an old question I always wondered about since I got my first italian leighweight bicycle in the 80s.
I don't know of any mass produced mechanical device which has so many "Patent..." engravings like a classic Campagnolo equipped bicycle. On the other other hand I don't know of any mass produced item that has been so often and exactly copied as exactly these parts.
While Campagnolo was kind enough to wait 25 years for the end of Suntours slant parallelogram patent, Suntour and others copied Campagnolo parts up to the detail, especially the parts with "Patent" odr "Brev" markings.
Or the fact that Campagnolo bought the patent of an italian guy in the 50s who had build a derailleur with a parallelogram which rarely showed any similarity with Campagnolo's design. But at the same time companies like Zeus made such blatant Gran Sport copies like
http://cgi.ebay.de/
Dirk
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Dirk Feeken
Heidelberg
Germany