I've added 17 MDA certificates to our page (links), Will add more as time allows.
Jay_House Of Enchantment

http://houseofenchantment.com/pages/blog/our%20effects.html

I have several of the old Marshall ones that I could post. Just never got around to it. Interesting.

I have Delage's Fastest trick, Delage's Shooting Flowers, and the Aerodynamic Bowl of Water.

This registration was a good attempt to give credit where it was due but it just didn't work in the long run.

Richard

It didn't work in the past because you couldn't SEE the document in someone's dusty file cabinet. Jay's solution of scanning them and putting links to them on the Internet makes checking the credentials quick and easy without going to the file cabinet. I think it's time to bring back the registrations, but they need to be "photo shop proof" if that is possible in this day and age. If the MDA themselves hosted the Web site containing the list of all registrations they have issued over the years, one could link to the individual registration and know that it was certified by the MDA because it would be on their site.

I just went to the MDA Web Site and it hasn't changed since 2005- which makes one worry about the value of joining such an antiquated organization. The on-line registration "file box" could bring it back to life, but someone would have to get on the ball and keep the Web site up to date.

The main reason MDA certification did not work, and will not work is that it is extra-legal. The MDA certification presumes to circumvent the patent and copyright laws of the United States. They have no real legal standing.

Case in point -- Frank Lezama was one of the first to receive an MDA certificate. It was for the Everlit Candle. This certification covered both the large candle with the replaceable wicks and the birthday candles.

S.S. Adams knocked them off when they found they could have them made more cheaply in Hong Kong. Frank tried to press a case, and learned at that point that the MDA had no legal standing whatsoever.

Too bad. It would have been a good idea, if it had worked.

Jim Swoger told me that an attorney spoke at the 1060 MDA meeting, reading everyone the riot act about how not-legal the entire thing is'

So

How do we protect our ideas if we don't patent them, make a trademark or copyright the instructions in the form of a play or lease the equipment with a non-disclosure agreement and a stiff penalty?

it's the age old question.

Hire a hit man?

I know the MDA has been around for a long time, but six years before the battle of Hastings is a little too long for me to believe.

Actually, the answer is very simple.

1) Copyright the instructions in the form of a play. It's cheap.
2) Trademark your stuff. It costs $320.
3) If you really want to protect it, patent it.

Non-disclosure agreements don't really work, either.

The fact is, that even with all their good intentions, the MDA doesn't have the legal standing to enforce anything.

Not only that, but certain things that they do are in violation of federal and state laws. I refer specifically to their reporting of bad debts. Even though it protects the trade, it is illegal to publish that kind of material.

It's a lot like the "Magicians' Oath." The Oath only applies to people who have actually taken it. The same is true of the MDA rules. They only apply to members of the MDA. Once the magic buying public learns this, then they realize that not much can be done about knockoffs.

So

All the old MDA confidential letters with the deler credit information (I have stashed away) would make very interesting reading.

That's true. Those derned lawyers spoiled the fun for a lot of people.

Senator Crandall had a run-in with them over a clipboard he had invented. Someone else knocked it off, and he tried to get them to do something about it. They wouldn't, though. If you read his Abbott's columns that were published as a book, you would see some of the interesting thoughts he had about the MDA.

He reveled in finding new things for MDA to stand for. My favorite was the Mulch Domed Aristocrats.

I like Pete's solution.

Richard

It does leave an impression!

Hangin's too good for 'em! BURNIN's too good for 'em! They oughtta be chopped into little bitty pieces and buried alive!!

(I can dream.)

*jeep!
--Grandpa