Rise of the Pan Magazine? A Dart Zone Patent Appears!

Just a short bit of news; after expanding patent and trademark searches worldwide, I found out that Dart Zone has been applying for patents at the World Intellectual Property Organization, which allows you to take an initial patent application and, within 12 months, file it at one of their offices to start the process for multiple countries worldwide, providing some level of protection while allowing time to formalize filings, fees, etc. in the countries you choose to pursue the patent in.

In the case of this patent, WO 2023/003517 A2, a Provisional Patent Application was filed in July of 2021 in the US (a simplified process for making an invention “patent pending” with the intent of filing for a full patent in 12 months). Those aren’t publicly searchable. 12 months later, a non-provisional (official) application was made, based off the previous filing, and that patent was published on January 26th of this year.

Given the fact that their vertical drum-fed blasters could become cumbersome at high capacity (looking at you, Tomahawk 60), Dart Zone is looking at a top-mounted pan magazine option instead. The images are pretty bland, but the important thing is that the mechanism A) exists, and B) had enough merit for Dart Zone to continue the process this long. For reference, the WIPO document for the Vulcanator has the same plain design, focusing on how it works, not the design of the final product. So don’t worry about the looks. Just know that it’s coming.