Originally Posted by
Wintersewer
This seems like a lot of money for a square ruler with some lines on it. I could not find a picture of one so I assume that is what it is. Someone please tell me why I would spend $18 (+ shipping??) for a square ruler. The video link was about Tutto bags, so I'm still wondering.....
Well most rulers are just rectangles or squares with lines on them, aren't they?
Whenever you are purchasing something that comes from someone's imagination, you are not paying just for the cost of the raw materials. If that were so, most books, which are just a bunch of paper with some markings on them, would sell for about $3.00. Most music CDs, which are just a piece of round plastic type material would be less than $1.00 each.
Someone had to come up with the whole concept of the X-Blocks projects, do all the math to make sure the pieces go together and form nice designs instead of a jumble of mismatched pieces, then take a financial risk in securing trademarks, patents, and having the product manufactured. All of that has value over and above the piece of acrylic that the ruler is made from.
I'm concerned about the suggestion to make your own version of this ruler. I'm not an attorney, and I don't want to get into a debate about patent law, but the rulers
are patented. According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office:
A patent is an intellectual property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States” for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.
Notice that it says "making" and "using" along with offering for sale. So even if you aren't going to go sell these, by making your own, you are using this person's intellectual property without compensating her (purchasing her product). Think about how you would feel if you went to work everyday for a month or so, and then your boss told you you weren't going to get paid because someone else didn't think what you did had value.
Not everyone will feel the need to or be able to afford to buy gadgets like this, and that's fine. We all have different likes and dislikes and styles of quilting. And that's what's wonderful about this addiction of ours.
