Document 5D7Kz0EwGk15yZ3D7gYpZNe85

December 9, 1977 PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT BIR-91I Mr. Leslie Barnett P. 0. Box 0 IS filcba Court Red Bank* Mom Jersey 07701 Dear Hr. Barnett; In accordance with our phone conversation yesterday, tills letter Is to confirm that Bird & Son has decided not to embark on a program to determine the benefits of RAT0P-B7 as presented to us by you and Mr. Tylufcl on November 16, 1977. He do not believe that a cost/perform ance Improvement over our current system will result, nor do we feel that we can devote the research time that appears necessary to determine otherwise. If, in the future, your patent situation Is settled and you have Intro duced the product for general sale, we expect to be able to arrange time to evaluate It In comparison with our present release agent* We shall, however, continue to maintain our position that these tests will be run by Bird personnel without the assistance of outside help. Very truly yours. LWH/rp cc: Dr. Schniter R. Dickinson Leonard 11. Heaver Technical Center Manager i | f; BIRD 013558 3906 In Reply to. Subject___ MEMORANDUM Paten //ks It? From ''S' / - To /2r^/^/-y y^> / c. r --\jp '" <02? '- . -A- ,- . TU* J^frdissf' U/TC&s/'' /fcCz sT^S/fr^y^e.'l /T c'S/ U* Us? <3<=.cyy/ 'S <&/*; %'oP BIRD 013559 390G-B In Reply toSubject------------------ MEMORANDUM BBH Date 1VI8/77 Prom 1. H. Weaver Tc BE- Dr. Schnlzer CHEMICAL ADDITIVES _____ On 11/16, BBH was visited by Leslie M. Barnett, President, and Leigh G. Tyluki, Technical Representative of- Chemical Additives P. 0. Box 0 15 Globe Court .Red Bank, New Jersey 07701 They met with Messrs. Hoye, Patenaude, Sutton, and Weaver. The purpose of the visit was to explain the benefits of a release agent for self-sealing shingles, identified as RAT0P-B7. A descriptive brochure and other literature (attached) were distributed. The background to the visit is that Mr. Barnett has been calling on Bird (mainly Ron Dickinson at Perth Amboy) for a few years in an effort to sell release agent for Wind Seal shingles. His former association with DuBois (see attached folder describing his company) may have provided the original contact, since Bird started buying its soap for the Wind Seal system from DuBois in 1955 and continued for a number of years until Bradford replaced DuBois as a supplier. BBH was asked to evaluate his original product and found it to be more readily re-wettable with water than the Bird standard anti-stick. The current offer ing is a result of efforts to overcome this problem. He passed around the table at the meeting a small bottle of the RATOP, a fluffy cream-colored powdered solid, which smelled strongly of stearate. His claims for the product are: 1. Monetary savings to Bird by (a) eliminating wax from Wind Seal Adhesive and (b) reduced usage of anti-stick, which effectively overcomes the fact that his product is nearly triple the price of the Bradford soap, now Bird's standard. 2. Better sealing of the shingles because there is no transfer of the RATOP from the back of the adjacent shingle in the bundle, as is the case with Bradford soap, and hence no blocking of the adhesive. 3. No re-wetting of the RATOP by water. It was explained to Mr. Barnett that his assumption that was possible to eliminate wax from the Bird Wind Seal Adhesive was based on the fallacious belief that the wax only served one purpose - to aid in package release. This is not the case, and tests would be required by Bird to find an adhesive with out wax which would work adequately. BIRD 013560 3906-fl MEMORANDUM In Reply to Date From To--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ?--~ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- It was also explained that, unlike our competitors, who use tape as a release device, Bird is not highly dissatisfied with its present system. We did not explain that if he actually had a better release material. Bird might be motivated to change adhesive as a possible means of helping to alleviate the horizontal cracking problem. In addition to the above points, a discussion was also held on a point alluded to by Mr. Barnett that his product required an essentially dry surface to be applied to and subsequently that the shingle be completely dry on packaging. When pressed on these points, he back-tracked a bit, since we took the stand that dry conditions in a roofing mill were impossible to assure. The foregoing points indicate that he may have a product that would be useful to Bird, but that a fairly time-consuming test program would be required to prove it. An impasse occurred over Mr. Barnett's insistance that he delegate one or two of his technical people to reside at our lab and either run the tests or aid the Bird chemists in running them. It seems he is afraid that samples and data on his product may leak to a competitor and the presence of his people will assure security, including destruction of any left-over sample material. He claims that the patent situation dictates this policy and that at least two other roofing companies, including J-M, have complied with his suggested course of action. I failed to ask him how he intended to assure himself that any of his product sold to customers would not leak to competitors. His stand on the subject would be more believable if it were not that this has been his approach since he began to deal with us. With respect to his first offering, a year or more ago, I told him that we would test the product ourselves and let him know the results or else not consider it at all. He acquiesced to our terms at that time. He is currently more adamant, even though I offered to sign a confidentiality agreement including the destruction or return of all unused material. He still insisted his people be present, even though I stated that we would demand of them a signed statement to keep confidential any test methods and techniques divulged by us to them. I believe that he is really concerned that his material will not pass our tests and that his people can demonstrate procedures which will convince us of the truth of his sales points. He implies that unless we choose to go along with his approach we will be in danger of missing out on a sure thing.I I told him that, in my opinion, the presence of his people would slow down our evaluation rather than speed-it up and that the questions raised by his product claims would require so much work on our part that I questioned how soon we could get at it, considering our other active project priorities. BIRD 013561 3906-i* In Reply toSubject-------------------- MEMORANDUM -Date- -Jfrom- - 3- -To- It was finally agreed that I would explain the matter to you and let you arbitrate the matter. It is my opinion that a brief evaluation by Cliff Patenaude might be justified to determine whether his product would be a superior release agent for the Witco 527 Adhesive. I do not believe it is worth our while to go along with his proposal as presented for the purpose of making a slight modification in our present adhesive merely to eliminate the use of wax so we'could afford to use his RAT0P-B7. LWW/rp BIRD 013562 1 H +^-> C *^- <0 0n &r s3 La o> x E o ^ c Xo 0 jf H -0 0I o X .t: " > > u. 0 O i-JC/J w{X< UP mo u< 30 S 18 o *-- t3- 1> c 3*- fij fils r~H CO Cd Q3 w> fl*43 03 TS JJX5 u< OecCrMg>) cino CM CM CM coiinno CM oo To* CM DRAINAGE-DEWATERING = VL oo O cC or <3 SXS OH 5 X 5 oo !.5 u= ?3 30 s OO .STcO _CCoc9L Q. ort% 3 -3-oOa CO Ui X D 5 uxXi 2ui O j3 Jrt TO c5 nB ow s+ro E .-5 -5 I s' " 6 " o X h " a8 53 mx 05 Q. CO S a UI a co _3o o tfl Vi ui f- 0 4o3- < 3 XO G> u- a. *2o X O >* Q. co hCO 2LU O < Ui CO o u. 40O5. 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