Can someone tell me how this is done?

[PeterAtwood]

So if the patent is applied for then they could now reveal what it is anytime....of course they probably want to keep it lowkey until they hit the market so as to retain the element of surprise.

[Bob Warner]

Correct. Now that the patent has been applied for they can tell everything about it and you and I can't touch it without infringing on the patent. Although the patent has not been granted, anything you or I do to infringe on it will come back to haunt later after the patent is granted and you get hit with an infringement suit.

Most companies don't tell you about their ideas (or those they purchased) until they are ready to start selling the product, then they make the announcement.

There are a couple of other reasons Benchmade may not have disclosed the idea. The most likely is because if the word got out now, somone in a foreign country could file for a patent on it in another country and block Benchmade out.

The US is a "First to invent" country. That means the person that can prove they came up with the idea first, gets the patent. Other countries work on a "First to file" system. This means that Benchmade could let the information leak out and a person in Japan (for example) could file before Benchmade was ready to file themselves and miss out on the worldwide rights.

Another reason not to let the info out is possibly because they have not started to sell it and don't want another company or person to start tearing the idea apart and looking for "Improvements." If they wait and do a blitz on the entire country at once, they will get a lot of sales. Then the improvers come in and possibly make a better product. At least Benchmade would realize profits from the initial product.

The last thing you want to do is release your three legged chair at the same time another company releases their improved chair that has four legs. The four legged chair would outsell the three legged on and the manufacturer of the three legged chair would be left with a lot of expenses and no return on their investment.

[Kelly Carlson]

Thanks for taking the Kershaw apart and sending photos, and saving me from risking destruction of the one I just purchased.
On the "switchblade" issue, Blade magazine has recently run a series of articles recently on automatics.
At least on a federal level, not state, switchblades are operated by a mechanism on the scales or bolsters - i.e., not by applying pressure to the blade itself. Therefore the Onion designs do not appear to fall under the federal "switchblade" definition. I expect that Kershaw's lawyers would have researched this carefully before risking production of a large number of Ken Onion's designs.