Datasheet Fluff

Could be.

Not that I know of, but there is a Europe-wide patent. People who are serious about patents apply for that, for a U.S. patent, a Japanese patent and a handful of others to cover the bulk of the potential markets. Vishay is pretty serious.

No.

It used to be hard to get hold of the latest parts in Australia and New Zealand (forty years ago), and Antarctica could well be worse.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

As far as I have heard from Australians that's because of the exorbitant tariff burden. Same for Brazil and other countries where politicians do not understand that high tariffs are counter-productive. Or expressed in plain American, a shot in the foot.

False. There is no tariff on components here. It's just that being a small market, a lot of stuff isn't economical to stock locally, and international postage is slow. Some suppliers insist on premium shipping services, who always put the package through customs inspection ($48) even for low-value packages for which they're not required, and who then charge you for the privilege of paying the $48 customs charge for you. Are you listening, Maxim?

But I've had good luck with USPS, from suppliers who allow that.

One man's "warehouse facility" is another man's "storage closet". I'm pretty sure the US no longer has provisional patents or applications. "Worldwide" could mean as few as two patent applications, filed in separate jurisdictions.

I've yet to see "Worldwide Provisional Patent Pending Technology" :P

It must be big bucks to get a 'worldwide patent' (countries where it counts). Ex: Not Africa.

I'm tempted to think: Worldwide patent pending = The price is going up after the patents are granted :(

D from BC British Columbia Canada.

A world patent is possible, but not all countries recognize a WO patent. Look to the EC for more info..

A less flashy datasheet heading would be: "Non-Pirating Industrialized Nations Patent Pending* Technology"

D from BC British Columbia Canada.

Sorry, we do have something that acts as a provisional, and i had thought that the USPTO had called it "provisional".

There will soon be a regular commercial jet service between Hobart and Antarctica. You will probably be able to get parts from Digikey within a couple of weeks, or parts from Australian companies within a couple of months.

Allan

Well, no matter how they call that, has your government considered dropping this customs fee (a.k.a. tax)? Or have they given it some thought as to why other countries do not levy such fees? I never had to pay $48 just to get a few parts and I've lived in Europe and in the US. Roadblocks like that entice entrepreneurs to start their companies elsewhere.

It's only just been introduced since 9/11 - it's to guard our borders from whatever. The system was developed at a cost of $110M in tax funds, and now they're making us pay for it again - standard "user pays" nonsense. If the fee was deductible it might make some sense. But of course there's no end in sight - after they've recovered the $110M (which was *our money* in the first place) they won't remove the fee, of course.

Previously only a small percentage of packages were examined, now that they've spent $110M on this "cost saving" technology, they scan every package with a declared value over $500 (IIRC). And every package that DHL handles, because they put it through even if the value is $1. And that's the source of my gripe against Maxim - they insist on using DHL.

It sucks, but governments do.

Hmm, how come we don't have this tax in the US yet still it all gets screened?

So the politicos down under think that evildoers are all honest enough to declare a value over $500 if some bad stuff is in the package? Not don't get me wrong but I think that's just plain stupid.

I couldn't fail to disagree with you less.

Ok, and I assume most business owners would agree as well. So why doesn't anyone raise enough of a stink and do something about it? Chambers of Commerce, trade groups, massive letter-writing to your representatives, etc. Media exposure helps a lot as well, along the lines of "Who dunnit?"

Maybe it's more like brokerage. I know there is a great difference in when and how much the differnt couriers charge for brokerage. Here DHK is almost as inexpensive as post (but with better service). FedEx and UPS at times appear extortionate. Digikey and Newark simplify things by charging a single reasoable shipping fee. I suspect they clear items on a mass basis rather than an item at a time.

Robert

What makes you think it all gets screened? I'd be surprised if it even reached the 10% level.

Robert

Yeah, probably. But they do have some nifty sensor equipment now that can catch an ever so slight whiff of a substance. Most of the time that catches drugs these days and there were some rather impressive catches.

Bottomline we are probably as prudent as Australia here in the US when it comes to security issues yet there are no extra customs taxes. What did seem to go up was bank fees. Nowadays they charge between $10 and $20 even when the sender had paid all wire fees. Which isn't right IMHO.

Well, surmisal mode on, Australians don't have unrealistic expectations of their governments the way Americans do. We pretty-much expect to get screwed coming and going, so we try to enjoy it. If it gets too bad, or we get tired of it always being done the same way, we chuck them out and try it a different way for a while.

The difference in the US is that you chuck them out when you're tired of them screwing (Dem), or not screwing (Rep), the *rest* of the world. US ethical posturing at home is only surpassed by a lack of ethics abroad. We'll all be glad to see the end of GWB, but I don't hold out much hope that anything will improve - just change. Especially if GWB is allowed to start massive trouble in Iran first, for no other reason than to leave a legacy. It's a shame, because the American people are absolutely lovely and just can't figure out why they're so hated abroad. Individually they certainly don't deserve that, they're always the first to help out when disasters strike. But when their own interests are at stake... another story.

Is that Canada? Haven't heard much gripe about exorbitant customs taxes there but I have heard Australian engineers complain a whole lot. The only ones complaining more were Brazilians.