Craftsman ‘Companion II’ Combined Vice and Workbench

Craftsman ‘Companion II’ combined vice and workbench, by Sears, Roebuck & Co., USA, 1981. This object was found to infringe patents on the design of the ‘Workmate’ combined vice and bench held by Black & Decker, Inc., and Hickman Design Ltd, UK, and subsequently withdrawn from sale. This case was definitive in securing the patents covering the ‘Workmate’ design in the very significant US market.

This was one of the major commercial threats to the Workmate. Sears had been marketing for several years a ‘Craftsman Portable Workcentre’ made for them by Black & Decker. They then began to market in 1978 the ‘Work Buddy’, which has a vice and top closely resembling that on the Workmate. Ron Hickman, designer of the Workmate, thought it was such a close copy that they even used Black & Decker vice screws and handles. Proceedings were started to stop infringement of both trademarks and patents.

Sears cited a series of pieces of prior art., including an eighteenth century work bench by Dominy. They also submitted as part of their case a 1.5 ton door-gluing machine by Fay & Egan, alongside a jeweller’s chuck patented in 1928, and argued that a combination of the two would match the essentials of the Workmate.

Sears, Roebuck were found to have infringed the Workmate patents with the ‘Work Buddy’ bench, built for them by Emerson. The Work Buddy name was changed to Companion I and Companion II during the proceedings.

Sears Roebuck went to appeal the decision, which was finally thrown out in 1982.