There can be an actual reason companies hide early prototypes, or for sure want to. It has to do with patents.
As I understood it (at least for US patents) if a patent has not been granted yet, and a picture of it is "leaked" and out in the world, it can cause problems with enforcing or granting the patent. It basically starts some sort of regulatory clock and can leave the door open for other companies to "steal" the idea before the patent is granted and locked down.
When I was at a certain big S company, they brought the entire engineering group and all product managers into a meeting with a slew of lawyers to discuss/explain this very thing. New parts/prototypes were to be covered at all times when in public with tape or other means so the details of the "part" in question could not be seen.
So yeah, it's on Devinci for blowing it if anything special was seen. They should and do know better. Don't blame the media, or the bike paparazzi dude.
It's not _all_ marketing BS and stealing of thunder from the product launch, just most of it. :)
Feb. 28, 2021, 12:05 a.m. - the prophet
There can be an actual reason companies hide early prototypes, or for sure want to. It has to do with patents. As I understood it (at least for US patents) if a patent has not been granted yet, and a picture of it is "leaked" and out in the world, it can cause problems with enforcing or granting the patent. It basically starts some sort of regulatory clock and can leave the door open for other companies to "steal" the idea before the patent is granted and locked down. When I was at a certain big S company, they brought the entire engineering group and all product managers into a meeting with a slew of lawyers to discuss/explain this very thing. New parts/prototypes were to be covered at all times when in public with tape or other means so the details of the "part" in question could not be seen. So yeah, it's on Devinci for blowing it if anything special was seen. They should and do know better. Don't blame the media, or the bike paparazzi dude. It's not _all_ marketing BS and stealing of thunder from the product launch, just most of it. :)