Carbon Copies From Behind The Bamboo Curtain.

Deas, my understanding is any patent around Cat,s high drive is more related to the bogie type undercarriage system than the elevated sprocket design itself, that said the Komatsu large dozers have a bogie system too.

I have also heard there is a Chinese firm that rebirths Cat dozers as brand X with Cummins donk etc so they are not copying it as such? ripping it off yes but not a copy right!

One of our China managers once told me they sold a D10T to a customer and 6 months later they got a request to come put it back together, and it had done no work!! One guess what they were up to.

I have seen a ^%&* brand 24 size grader copy at a Beijing expo once before too.

Word on the street is a significant manufacturer in the mining space today has a D10 equivalent sized elevated sprocket dozer on the way to Australia and it,s not yellow.

A patent isn't worth much in a country that doesn't have a patent treaty with the country registering the patent. It's also my understanding that a patent will be worth even less if the top-secret Trans Pacific Partnership is ratified. All I'll say at this point is that it will be damned interesting when taxpayers have to cover corporate lost profits...

But, I don't want to start a political fight and i have no access to direct information. It's secret. Should make us question. That's all I am qualified to say.

Patents are not what they were once. Today they are used as trading cards between companies and are rarely "game changing" technology (I have 20 with a few more in the works) Of those that I have only a few are were used in the development of a new product, and I had to fight to make those happen. There were a number of ideas that I was told not to patent simply not to disclose how we were doing something so no one could barrow it. The rest I would consider patents that other companies have to work around, but in today's environment a simple screw change can negate the application of a patent. I think the laywers make the most money. I should state I am a mechanical engineer, which is a mature field, and that maybe is why I have that perspective. (PS the patents I am most proud of are system level patents, not a harware patent)

makes you wonder if they are re-manufacturer right off of there web page ("Manufactured according to original drawing of Caterpillar Inc. U.S.A, Total interchangeable with Caterpillar bulldozer"). rebuild happen i guess just not with good parts lol.

I'm 90% sure I drove past a heavy equipment workshop in Coonabarabran NSW last week, and there was a high track SD7 getting fixed. Looked like maybe a final overhaul.