Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marc, I won't argue the patent issue. Yes the Japanese did copy. Yes, the Tessar was an original design based on previous lens designs and new research. It is perhaps the most famous lens design ever and the first lens the Japanese tried to dulpicate. Can we leave it at that? Peter K - -----Original Message----- From: Marc James Small [mailto:msmall@roanoke.infi.net] Sent: Thursday, July 29, 1999 10:09 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: Lens Designs and history At 08:32 PM 7/29/99 -0700, Peter Kotsinadelis wrote: >As to thievery, well 100 years later we can argue with what Rudolph and >others did but its long gone and they are too so they can't defend >themselves. The Zeiss folks did borrow design ideas and reworked them. >Geniuses or not, they "borrowed" and did not always invent regardless of the >label you apply. OTOH, the the Japanese did borrow and duplicate many >designs. Later they also improved them. Peter This is so much foolishness. Rudolph's design of the Tessar is exceedingly well documented and it was Kingslake's special area of interest. And Rudolph's assistant, Ernst Wandersleb, survived until 1964 and the folks who interviewed HIM on this subject are very much alive. There was no unauthorized taking here: the Tessar was a clear improvement on the art sufficient to be patentable under the laws of all nations. What the Japanese did in the decade after the War was NOT patentable, as they made no improvements but simply did a direct copy. The later Japanese designs are a different story, but they come AFTER the Japanese had made their money from the intellectual sweat of Zeiss and Leitz designers. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!