Tune Bot / Idrum Tech lawsuit?

Muckster

Platinum Member
Has anyone kept up with what is going on there? I'm wondering if Tune Bot has legitimate claims to infringement or is simply killing the competition through court costs?
 
Interesting, thanks Muckster, I wonder why they only appear to be going after I drum Tech , I am pretty sure I have seen other similar apps?
 
I don't know enough about the individual devices to comment from an informed position, although I do know a fair bit about patents. Unless I'm mistaken, the basis of the technical infringement being argued centres around collection of frequencies, not processing or manifestations thereafter. If that's correct, then I'm failing to see the difference between Tune Bot, the Idrum app, & a guitar tuner. Tough one.
 
As always, check the patent to see if claim #1 "the independent claim" has been infringed upon. For this patent, that is:

1. A method for resonance tuning, comprising: receiving a signal in response to a resonance of a structure; determining a frequency or musical note related to an overtone from the signal; selecting the frequency or musical note related to the overtone as a filter mode reference frequency or musical note; and suppressing a display of frequencies or musical notes from a subsequent signal that deviate from the filter mode reference frequency or musical note by a predetermined threshold.

I am not familiar with either system. What do you guys think?
 
I'm guessing that the patent refers to tuning drums only, if not then surely guitar tuners infringe the patent?

Also, I had always thought that a patent could not be issued if the device/method being patented already existed elsewhere in the market, I downloaded an electronic drum tuning app 2 years ago?
 
I think this suit is a bunch of hog wash. They are just trying to kill competition. I downloaded and use Idrumtech. It's only $3.99 compared to Tunebot's $100 pricetag. That's why Tunebot is trying get rid of Idrumtech. It works very well and my drums have never sounded better.
 
I'm guessing that the patent refers to tuning drums only, if not then surely guitar tuners infringe the patent?

Also, I had always thought that a patent could not be issued if the device/method being patented already existed elsewhere in the market, I downloaded an electronic drum tuning app 2 years ago?

Claim #1 does not limit the field of application to drums. It is not specific to any instrument,

Patents are granted often for ideas already being practiced. In these cases, the field of search for "prior art" was not exhaustive enough. There is a protest process but I am not an attorney and do not know the details.
 
I don't know much about patent law, but I have heard over and over again that a patent is only good if you make attempts to enforce it. If you fail to enforce it, it's basically like it doesn't exist after a period of time.

Something like that...
 
I think this suit is a bunch of hog wash. They are just trying to kill competition. I downloaded and use Idrumtech. It's only $3.99 compared to Tunebot's $100 pricetag. That's why Tunebot is trying get rid of Idrumtech. It works very well and my drums have never sounded better.

agreed

I own them both .... they both work very well and equally as well in situations where I use them....which is in loud environments changing heads or tuning adjustments

but for $96 less how could you pass up the app ?
 
Excellent. How do we donate to his legal fund? I want to donate just out of principal.

If you have an iphone/ipad or android phone or tablet get the app. You won't regret it. It's free now and once you download it, it has a link within the app to donate to idrumtech. Definitely a worthy effort.
 
Excellent. How do we donate to his legal fund? I want to donate just out of principal.
What's your principal? Helping a company to "steal" ideas and technology from another just to make money with it? Clearly Tune-Bot is/was an innovation. If you read the Complaint even Eric Rosebrock (of Idrum) acknowledged that. As far as I can see it's a judicial but not a moral question if Idrum is violating a patent.
 
If you have an iphone/ipad or android phone or tablet get the app. You won't regret it. It's free now and once you download it, it has a link within the app to donate to idrumtech. Definitely a worthy effort.

It's not showing as free on my Android. $3.99
 
Might be a bad move to sue.. by publicizing this, a lot of people (like me) that have never heard of the idrumtech app might try it out!

Reminds me of when my $175 Yamaha metronome (that was a painful, tedious bear to program) bit the dust and I replaced it with a $4 app that is light years better than that piece of junk!
 
I have a tune bot and really like it. Just downloaded the Idrum tech and it looks pretty nice, especially for free. I did a quick side by side comparison and the tune bot reads the frequencies a few HZ higher than the Idrum tech but probably not enough to make much difference. I don't know which one is more accurate.

After a quick look the only real advantage I see to the tune bot is being able to clip it to the drum rim which frees up both hands to tune.
 
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