[Ellison]

I read an introduction about Blue Chip Company in pokerchipsreviews.com. It says that the founder of Blue Chip Company- Charles-had produce poker chips for PAULSON.

Here is my question, Blue Chip Co. made many poker chips that almost the same with PAULSON's. Won't there be any PATENT problems??????

[Nanook]

Originally Posted by Ellison

I read an introduction about Blue Chip Company in pokerchipsreviews.com. It says that the founder of Blue Chip Company- Charles-had produce poker chips for PAULSON.

Here is my question, Blue Chip Co. made many poker chips that almost the same with PAULSON's. Won't there be any PATENT problems??????

Not sure exactly what the question is, but I will take a stab. I will let someone else who has the details handy give all the nitty gritty, but the gist of it is that the guys that started Blue Chip used to own Paulson. They sold out to GPI a few yrs back and now they are back in business for themselves under the new name Blue Chip. They do not produce any chips on the same molds as Paulson/ GPI so no Patent problems.

AB

[JM]

Handle a sample of each chip and you'll know instantly that they don't make them the same way, thus no patent problems.

[circlencircle]

Originally Posted by JM

Handle a sample of each chip and you'll know instantly that they don't make them the same way, thus no patent problems.

No one that would have authority to say weather there is a copyright and/or patent infringement would give a crap about the difference in how you and I think they feel. Anyone with the know how and financial backing that wants to make chips could conceivably do so. The similarities that BC shares with Paulson/GPI are also shared by all the other clay chip manufacturers. It would be the same as suggesting that Goodyear is infringing on Firestone. The only area where there could be issues is with the specific designs in which they have duplicated. Each of those designs is specifically owned by someone. In the case of the Vineyards it’s neither BC or Paulson and that in and of it self is a story... Anyway, to answer the original question:

Below is taken from the GPI web site. I got the story first hand from Dave and will give a quick low down... Paul Endy Jr started Paulson (Paul-son) with his two sons (Dave and Mike Endy's Father and uncle). Paul Endy Jr's father, Paul Sr., owned TR King and was where Paul Jr got his start in the gaming industry. Eventually Paulson Co. was sold to GPI as it was mentioned and eventually Dave, Mike and their father (the father being one of the original sons in "Paul-son") started BlueChip Co.

Basically the Endy family is responsible for and can be given credit for clay chips as we know them today if you consider that they have owned 3 of the 4 biggest clay chip manufacturing companies in the US at one time or another.

Paul S. Endy Jr. had gaming supply in his blood. Born in Monterey Park, California, in 1929, he worked as an electrician before going into sales and service at his father’s business, a gaming supply distributor and dice manufacturer called T.R. King & Company.

Paul Sr.’s business, which Endy joined in the early 1950s, would provide the seeds that Paul Jr. would eventually turn into the top gaming supply company in the nation. In 1963, with the help of his father, Endy and a partner, Curley Ashworth, bought a bankrupt dice company in Las Vegas. Because Endy brought his three sons in to help run the business, and in a tribute to his own father, he decided to name his new company Paul-Son Gaming Supply.

It would be gaming chips that Paul-Son would become most known for. Endy’s company developed custom-molded clay chips with personalized inlays—intricate graphics, photography and other features never before seen on a chip—and a constantly increasing number of anti-counterfeiting features. Over the years, the security features built into the clay chips became more and more sophisticated. (After the merger with Bourgogne et Grasset and thanks to their know-how and a long established experience in adding security features to a chip, Paulson security features culminated in the development of the microchip-embedded chip in 2003.)

By the 1990s, Paul-Son had grown with the industry, establishing offices around the United States and nurturing relationships with table game operators both in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The explosive growth of the industry in the early 1990s with emerging riverboat and Indian casinos added more customers, which prompted Endy to take his company public. In 1994, an initial stock offering transformed Paul-Son Gaming into Paul-Son Gaming Corporation.

The new public company offered an expanded product line that included not only chips and dice, but playing cards, table layouts and other equipment, making Paul-Son a one-stop shop for everything in table game supply. The expanded product offerings and burgeoning business necessitated a manufacturing facility much larger than Paul-Son’s Las Vegas headquarters, so the company established a plant in San Luis, Mexico, to handle production of all Paul-Son products.

Paul Endy Jr. died in April of 1999, leaving a legacy not only of the best in table game supply, but of the best in service to the communities in which he operated. Endy had served as chairman and director of Westcare, a nonprofit treatment center for drug and alcohol abuse, and contributed to numerous other community organizations, including high school baseball, UNLV baseball, and the Boy Scouts of America. In Mexico, he and his wife funded the expansion of a home for elderly women and contributed extensively to local orphanages.

Paul Endy is a member of the Gaming Hall of Fame, and GPI USA aims to continue that tradition.

[whitepotatoe]

Actually, I doubt that any of these companies have patents on their chip making processes or chip composition formulas (I have not done a search or anything though). Like Coca-cola, there is no patent, it's just a secret formula. So as long as someone does not misappropriate the trade secrets there is no problem. When a worker leaves one comapny and goes to another, he can take the general information about the industry with him. So they basically could not use the same compositions, or take/use any info of any secret processes. Molds and inlay designs (and possibly edgespot designs) are copyrighted though, so some new company could not make a TH&C mold (or any of the molds) unless they changed it enough so that it would not fall within the scope of the copyright. Also, Paulson is trademarked, and the TH&C might be covered under that too.

Obviously Paulson, Blue Chip, ASM, TR King, Bud Jones, etc. all feel different and have different qualities and characteristics, so I don't think anyone has stolen anyone elses formulas.

[JM]

Well you can certainly tell from the looks, feel, and sound of blue chip, paulson, and ASM chips that they are not made with identical materials and identical processes. Just as you can tell from the look, sound, and (road) feel of goodyear tires vs firestones. There are the obvious similarities between each, but certainly not enough to say they are ripoffs of each other.

[BigKyle]

Think of it as clothes, you have the Polo Ralph Lauren and then there is the department stores that sell the shirts with a little logo that looks almost exactly like the polo player. They are both white cotton shirts with tiny black logos on the chest but they are not exactly the same. This is the premise behind chips, like the top hat/cane and the cigar/snifter molds.

[MeridianFC]

All of this is why y'all are going to enjoy my new start up ventures. Through my umbrella gaming group CPI, you can enjoy our Paulsen Brand gaming chips (they will be a revelation in the industry) featuring the Night Hat and Walking Stick mold. Our subsidiary Atlanta Standard Molding will produce a separte line of gaming tokens for those looking for a choice (Mule Head, US, and Greecian Molds). If none of those work for you our VR Kingly cheques will probably suit you.

Free deck of KIM cards with every purchase.

Look for my eBay handle: deweybilkumandhowe

[PocketRocket]

That one is a beauty! Thanks for the chuckle!

Originally Posted by MeridianFC

All of this is why y'all are going to enjoy my new start up ventures. Through my umbrella gaming group CPI, you can enjoy our Paulsen Brand gaming chips (they will be a revelation in the industry) featuring the Night Hat and Walking Stick mold. Our subsidiary Atlanta Standard Molding will produce a separte line of gaming tokens for those looking for a choice (Mule Head, US, and Greecian Molds). If none of those work for you our VR Kingly cheques will probably suit you.

Free deck of KIM cards with every purchase.

Look for my eBay handle: deweybilkumandhowe

[JM]

LMAO! Will you be going public soon? I'd like to invest.

Originally Posted by MeridianFC

All of this is why y'all are going to enjoy my new start up ventures. Through my umbrella gaming group CPI, you can enjoy our Paulsen Brand gaming chips (they will be a revelation in the industry) featuring the Night Hat and Walking Stick mold. Our subsidiary Atlanta Standard Molding will produce a separte line of gaming tokens for those looking for a choice (Mule Head, US, and Greecian Molds). If none of those work for you our VR Kingly cheques will probably suit you.

Free deck of KIM cards with every purchase.

Look for my eBay handle: deweybilkumandhowe