There’s a reason this site is moving so fast. There’s a reason why no one else is doing this regularly. There’s a reason why big sites are buying and publishing these articles. And there’s a reason why people are stealing my content. It’s because these are hard as fuck to write; sometimes taking me days to get correct. Very few people can actually read these documents correctly, and I’m mediocre. I’ve worked on these skills to read and write about these ideas in a way to get people interested, which makes me so happy.
Because these are so difficult to read, other publishers are reading my already simplified articles and rewriting them for their audience, even going as far as taking my marked-up figures for themselves. As far as I’m concerned, if you can’t read the underlying document, need my work to write your article, and don’t cite me, that’s stealing. Unfortunately, there’s not much I can do when its overseas, especially since I’m just one dude. And very few publishers could pull digestible information from these patent documents themselves, so my articles are easy pickings.
I fully understand these documents are public. I work in this industry, I know the rules. Everyone is more than welcome to read and write about them, that’s one of the great things about the USPTO and the patenting ideology. But if you must write about bike patent documents, pick any of the 50 that come out every week. We can work together to educate and inform. Or if you must use mine, at least cite me. That’s the bare minimum you can do for being a lazy “writer”. Or if I inspire you to write about the same patent, just don’t take my marked figures… how hard it is to open the document and get images yourself?
In the end, I’m going to let this go. It’ll kill me if I pursue this and stay angry. This has happened before and it’ll happen again. Imitation in the highest form of flattery, amirite? I’m just stoked people are interested in what I’m writing. I’ll keep my head up, keep writing for the 99.99% of good people reading, and move on. This is just another life lesson.
Shout out to Pinkbike, Loam Wolf, VitalMTB, and GMBN (Tech) for contacting me, citing me, and working together to get this information to the readers. I’ve got a new appreciation for these guys and girls for the high level of integrity they maintain.
Lastly, shoutout to Instagram’s feed algorithms. They took me right to you. It’ll come back around one day.
Too right. As someone who creates content for a living I fully agree with the sentiments of your post.
You should be rewarded for your hard work and sited by others that use it. Glad to see you listed sites that respect your work and happy to support them in return.
I think it’s really interesting that you created a source evaluating and discussing intellectual property (and the owners) and people are stealing your intellectual property. It’s a great site, and your articles are insightful and well written. Keep charging!
The irony is definitely not unnoticed. And thank you for reading!