Window Tilt Latch (reversible)

thingiverse

This is the window tilt latch insert that is a direct OEM spec replacement for the insert that was used on some windows in the late 1980s/early 1990s that had a little tab to actuate them. Slightly different than other designs available here. It is suitable as scaled to be installed in a housing with a 3/4" backset and a 2&1/8" o.c. hole spacing. Now for a philosophical digression. At what point does a protruding spring-loaded latch fall into the public domain. Because these devices were actually patented. In fact there are a slew of patents for these devices. Fortunately I know that the windows this iteration comes from is were installed over 20 years ago. Making them now public domain. But not by much. So consider - an inventor patents these things and they go in many windows. The window manufacturer makes them out of plastics that are not particularly excellent at withstanding UV light over more than a decade or so. Meanwhile the windows themselves remain perfectly serviceable but for this 2-cent piece of plastic. Now the window manufacturer had given a warranty. That warranty was, interestingly, about a long as the patent. And this is how things are supposed to work in an "IP Monopoly" world. You get the monopoly, but you also are expected to fulfill the obligation to provide after-sale support when the invention/code/hardware fails up to that point where the user/owner becomes empowered, by the expiration of a patent in this case, to procure that service elsewhere or to do it themselves. That is unfortunately NOT how things generally work for stuff aside from trivial window latches. Everything from software to patented microchips. They get zero support (cheaper to replace than repair) during their ridiculously short warranty period AND after that warranty period (or more accurately, the marketing cycle) is up, there is not just NO support but NO public disclosure that would enable an owner to maintain and repair the product. Waste on the back of rampant greed in a consumerist culture is not a good thing for long term sustainability. Want to put a dent in waste? Want to see a shift in culture away from modern consumerism to what was once "can-do thinking an innovation"? We need change! Massive changes to our IP laws are long overdue, and not in the direction that the major governments of the world seem ready to embrace (which is more protection to corporations with even less obligations to maintain). Please think broadly about what IP laws should look like that matches rights to obligations in an age where patent filing on most IP barely provide enough details to understand how the device is made, let alone duplicate or repair it. We have a rent earning system that exploits the adopters of technology rather than empowers them. And we have a patent code that belongs to the era where inventions consisted merely of mechanical drawings for things like window latches.