Patented Cylinders

[Hojo]

What does Patented mean, I have two abus's and they are Patented 83/45 I just want to know what it means?
Thanks in advance

[WhiteHat]

it means the designe has a patent, which means that the company can sue anyone who tries to copy the design - it enables control of the key blanks also.

[Hojo]

Oh, I know the word, but It just didn't come to mind...thanks

[skold]

the abus key blank is a normal lw4 or lw5 key..cannot be patented but the lock is

[Luke]

somthing i find amusing is most locks in the world, use a LW4 style, or somewhat different (like quickset like lw4 only GAPPING ALOT ALOT MORE)

[reg]

the abus key blank is a normal lw4 or lw5 key..cannot be patented but the lock is

standard abus, yes
But abus does a lot more, for an example look at pfaffenhain which is a daughter of Abus.
http://www.pfaffenhain.de/eng/e_sys_v14_kv14.html[/url]

[alias]

Presumably its one of these patents;

United States Patent #6,425,274 - Rekeyable padlock with a lock cylinder having an enlarged viewing slot

United States Patent #5,921,123 - Rekeyable padlock

United States Patent #5,377,511 - Padlock with locking balls for a shackle

United States Patent #5,363,678 - Padlock with ball-locked shackle

Plenty of patents out there for locks/keyways/methods etc. I won't got into what I think about the patentabillity of keyway designs though or we'll be here all night...