cheapest place to pre-order the tim holtz stamp positioner?

While we're waiting for the TH Tonic positioner, keep in mind you can make a DIY version:

The Little B sticky mat is key. Love mine! Holds me over until I can get the TH one.

From that letter it sounds like MSP didn't necessarily "go after" Tonic but that in light of the patent, they are covering all their bases before releasing it in the US.

The unique feature, imho, is she patented the idea. The government only checks to see if there is a conflict with pending/existing patents. They do not check if anyone else thought of the idea first.


I read some of her patent. I FULLY admit I am not familiar with patent discriptions, but hers seems so very vague. So vague that anything that holds a stamp will be considered a patent violation.

I wish that all of the people congratulating her on her blog had a look at some of the posts here. I get the whole patenting your work thing, but that doesn't give anyone the right to be nasty and give bad customer service.

I'll wait for the Tim Holtz version. Or I'll never have a platform.

FWIW, just having a vague description for her patent will not mean that someone else who comes up with a unique way of holding a stamp will be thwarted.

She is right about patents being intended to protect those who design something unique. However, since hers at least appears to be based on a letterpress, I think she is a bit of a hypocrite.

I personally think the Tonic stamp press is different enough that it should be able to be released. Yes, it is a stamp press, but it is somewhat different in how it accomplishes the process.

Think about all of the electronic cutters, and even manual die cutters. I'm sure they all have patents, too, and some are VERY similar. However, you cannot patent what the product does, only how unique the machine or tool is in the way it accomplishes that process.

If there is someone who currently holds a patent on the letterpress, it would not surprise me to see MSP get sued for patent infringement. Just because a patent was awarded does not mean there is nothing out there that is similar. It may just mean that someone at the patent office was a bit lazy and didn't search hard enough. The letterpress predates the MISTI. If the MISTI is different enough from a letterpress to receive a patent, then the Tonic version should also be different enough to get their own and be able to be marketed.

I am not that savvy about patent law, but my late brother did get patents on a few of his inventions, and he told me a little about the process he went through. These are just my observations on the situation based on what I learned from him.

Here is a link to the filing document: search.rpxcorp.com/litigation_documents/12399889

I read the entire thing. It appears that Tim was given a special Misti (In brown) in November 2016. On his blog, ( timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2016-november/ ) he sings the praises of the MISTI, and even uses affiliate links for people to buy it.

This is going to take more than 4 weeks ... patent litigation can take years. Well, crap. I have a Tim Holtz stamp platform on preorder.

I really hope Tonic challenges the patent.

The fact that Tonic doesn't want to "expose our customers to any legal action from MSP in the event that they sell our product" is just ridiculous.

If she is going to go after someone, go after the manufacturer (Tonic), but Tonic is afraid she's going to go after their distributors? That's like suing Best Buy for selling Kindles for patent infringement. No one in their right mind would think that was okay, but Tonic thinks she's enough off kilter to do that? That's insane.

Looks like it was filed April 3, here's the first page. Link to all pages


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That's only 2 months before the platform was announced - wouldn't it have taken longer than that to develop it, get prototypes made etc etc?

I wondered the same thing. I really hope that Tonic has a good case and can (and will) defend themselves.

Unfortunately, if MSP really has made millions on the MISTI as the paperwork claims, she has enough money to keep a lawsuit going for quite awhile, which could at least delay sales of the Tonic stamp press for a long time.

It's worrying to me that she got the patent in the first place - hope there are no shenanigans going on at the Patent Office now that "the dealmaker" is in charge. How in the world is the misti so patentable - it's a press - like the Letterpress. I hope WRMK fights it - but I don't know if you can fight once it's issued. And the comparisons between the scor-pal and the MS scoreboard are apt - tools are often modified and resold by another company. That she thinks she has rights for no one to EVER make another press is silly. Maybe the HA one is too similar, but not the WRMK or Tonic ones. Ugh - I hope she loses any contests w/those companies.

Depending on how you define a rectangle, a square is a rectangle, unfortunately. A cursory search refers to four sides with four right angles ESPECIALLY (but none of the definitions I found say exclusively) if the two sets of parallel sides are different lengths. Technically, a square is a rectangle.