
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990                   TAG: 9003231985
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BAGPIPE-BAG MAKER HIT BY GAEL-FORCE LAWSUIT

A wee donnybrook has broken out over a 20th-century improvement on a 16th-century musical instrument: synthetic bagpipe bags.

W.L. Gore & Associates Inc., the Newark, Del.-based maker of Gore-Tex rubberized fabric, has sued an Australian competitor and a Seattle bagpipe distributor, alleging violation of a Gore-Tex patent with the poetic title "Bagpipes and a Bag Therefor."

"It's all ridiculous," said Jack Ironside, owner of Scottish Shopper Corp. of Seattle, one of the defendants.

But Gore isn't just blowing hot air. "We'd like an injunction to get them out of the business," said David H. Pfeffer, a patent attorney at the New York firm of Morgan & Finnegan, which is representing Gore.

The idea for a synthetic bag came from a worker at a Gore-Tex factory in Scotland. Gore has been selling the bags since 1988 and won a U.S. patent on its innovation last June.

The company claims that a Gore-Tex bagpipe bag is superior to the traditional sheepskin or leather bag because it holds air better, lasts longer, requires less maintenance and avoids the unseemly buildup of saliva that can make bags fairly foul after a while.

All this is important to bagpipers, who must blow with Gael force into their bags to inflate them. The air - frequently replenished - is then used to drive the four pipes, which contain moisture-sensitive reeds. The less moisture in the bag, the better the sound.

Gore claims the Australian company, Ross Bagpipe Reeds PTY Ltd., violated its patent by manufacturing its own version of a synthetic bagpipe bag. The Ross bag - named the Canmore, after an 11th-century Scottish king - is made of a Gore-Tex-like fabric and has many of the properties Gore says are covered by its patent.

Nobody can say just how big the market is for bagpipe bags, synthetic or otherwise. Gore, a private company, declines to discuss its sales figures.

Ironside has stopped selling Canmore bags pending the outcome of the dispute - he still sells Gore-Tex - but he's not happy about it.

"I can buy what I like and sell what I like," he said in a soft but angry Scottish burr. "I think they're out in left field, having a go at me."

by CNB