A Mr Zion Dadon had the bright idea of threading rings with attached clothes pins (English – clothes pegs) onto clothes lines, thereby preventing the problem of the pegs falling to the ground.
Fascinatingly, back in 1994, Rafael, Israel’s leading armaments manufacturer, was contracted to manufacture these revolutionary clothes pins, and manufactured 433,255 from polypropylene. It appears that the choice of material was left to the manufacturers, with the contract specifying high quality material. Polyproplylene was not up to the job, and Dadon requested manufacturing from nylon instead.
On the basis of poor choice of material, Dadon sued Rafael for Breach of Contract. The case was thrown out in September 1996. Now, some 3 1/2 years later, the Supreme Court has refused to reopen the case, claiming that the District Court had weighed up the evidence and reached a reasonable decision. the appeal was dismissed and costs of NIS 2500 were awarded against the appelant.
I have decided to blog the case as it is rare that the Israel Supreme Court considers patent cases, and even rarer where such cases are not pharmaceutical related. That Rafael are making clothes pins is also quite interesting.
As a Materials Scientist, I also have an interest in the choice of materials for various applications. In trying to evaluate the reasonableness of manufacturing clothes pins from polypropylene, I note that US 4,876,771 to Itzhak Givati titled “Plastic clip particularly useful as a clothes pin” which was filed in 1988, suggests polypropylene as an appropriate plastic.
I am still not sure what Rafael’s interest in this is. I have not found any reference to clothes pins being used in weapon systems, although they apparently widely used as nipple clamps in BDSM applications.
Appeal 1668/07 Zion Dadon against Rafael Weapons Development LTD.
