Persistence Pays Off

Ten years after Control Components Inc. first became aware that business competitor Copes-Vulcan had copied CCI’s unique severe service DRAG® design, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has canceled the Copes-Vulcan patents.

This action culminates years of unrelenting effort from CCI to protect the legacy of Richard Self, who created a new level of valve performance technology with his invention of the DRAG® tortuous right-angle valve trim. Self patented the DRAG® design in 1967. The PTO action has reaffirmed that Control Components Inc. is the sole heir to Self’s invention, and that CCI has earned this inheritance by continuing Self’s commitment to world-class engineering. Each and every CCI DRAG® valve represents many years of innovative research and design.

CCI began the legal action six years ago in an effort to provide the PTO with evidence that the Copes patents were not original work. Copes used every legal means they could to delay the final cancellations of their patents that copied the DRAG® technology. As a government agency, the PTO was also very slow and methodical.

Key dates in this lengthy effort were:

• 20 June 1997 – CCI first became aware that Copes was offering customers a DRAG® trim imitation that was known as RAVEN trim.
• 30 June 1998 – Copes applied for their first of two patents.
• 25 October 2001 – CCI met with a patent attorney to discuss ways to fight the Copes patents.
• 26 April 2002 – CCI’s attorney filed a request for patent reexamination.
• 2 October 2007 – PTO cancels all Copes claims associated with the last remaining patent. All text and claims of the Copes patents have been rejected.

It is now illegal for Copes-Vulcan to claim any patents regarding its RAVEN trim valves.

For decades CCI has met customers’ severe service control valve demands in facilities around the world. CCI has earned a reputation for providing quality, reliability, and customer service. Power generation, oil and gas production, petrochemical, pulp and paper and other process facilities rely on our world-class engineering expertise and high integrity systems.

Published in SOLUTIONS Winter 2008