Choose keys with patent protection – here’s why

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When choosing to install a masterkey system, you’ll be thinking about the building, about different user groups and their access needs. No doubt you’ll want to stick to a budget while ensuring appropriate levels of security. But you could also be thinking about convenience – how easy it will be to get replacement or extra keys cut.

Stop right there.

That search for convenience, understandable though it is, has the potential to undermine all your other security measures, including the high-quality lock cylinders you’ve just decided upon. You don’t want acquiring replacement keys to be a nightmare, but you definitely don’t want the lack of control that happens when it’s as simple as popping to the nearest key cutting stand.

If anyone and everyone has a key, you have no security. End of.

Patented systems

The simplest way to stop unauthorised key duplication is with a patented system. And the terminology is important here. Trademarks or copyright don’t offer the same protection. It is illegal for anyone other than the patent holder or their authorised agent to copy a patented key

A patent isn’t easy to acquire, but it ensures the developer has a window of time – normally twenty years – in which no one can copy the idea. Patents are granted for products that are new, inventive and which represent a significant improvement. In masterkey systems, therefore, a patent denotes an advanced level of security. Not only is it illegal to copy a patented key, it would be very difficult to do so.

Clearly, a patent benefits its owner, but it also benefits the consumer by ensuring the developer maintains the highest possible standards of quality throughout the life of the patent. It also effectively stops poor quality imitations getting to market. The investment required to copy the technology wouldn’t be worthwhile because the resulting product couldn’t be sold.

Innovative, secure and practical

Our Tigris® Premier 3 system has patented protection until 2032. The 6-pin cylinder lock system has a double undercut ‘branch groove’ to the key and cylinder profile which provides a physical and legal barrier to the production of pirate key blanks.

A patented system is advanced, gives legal protection against unauthorised key duplication and ensures high quality. But most people don’t realise that it can be essential under the terms of an insurance policy. Many insurers of commercial premises won’t honour claims where a key produced without authorisation has been used to gain entry.

But let’s go back briefly to that question of convenience we raised at the start. We said no one wanted a nightmare when they needed to obtain a replacement key. With Access2’s outstanding service, there won’t be one. If you’re authorised, we’ll sort it.  And quickly.