Don Rickert Design

Don Rickert Research and Design (UPDATE 4-21-13)

Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC, is a unique Patent Litigation Expert Services and New Product Design/Design Research firm. Generally doing business either under the names Don Rickert Research & Design™ (DBA), The Rickert Expert Group™ (DBA) and Don Rickert Musical Instruments™ (DBA).

The Rickert Expert Group™: Patent Litigation Expert Services (www.RickertExpertServices.com)

PATENT LITIGATION EXPERT SERVICES:

Provide the full spectrum of Expert Witness and associated  Consulting Services to Legal Counsel involved in Patent infringement cases, including prior art research, writing expert opinion Declarations (e.g. Federal Court “Rule 26 Reports”) and Rebuttals (e.g. to opposition Expert Reports) for U.S. District Court, as well actually testifying as an Expert Witness in cases that go to trial.

Expert Witness Experience and Special Skills (SUMMARY):

• Experience as Testifying (i.e. Lead) Expert Witness on a landmark patent infringement case (U.S. District Court) and multiple ITC 337 Investigations
• Physical Infringement Analysis: Beyond-the-ordinary experience as an expert witness in analyzing internal electro-mechanical structures (e.g. switching mechanisms) and electronic components of accused devices
• Experience in review and analysis of USPTO Patent Prosecution Records
• Experience in preparing Expert reports (Rule 26 Reports, Rebuttals, and Expert Declarations)
• Deposition and trial experience, exhibit preparation

Practice limited to Testifying (i.e. Primary) Expert on major U.S. District Court patent infringement cases. Will consider ITC 337 Investigations in cases involving musical instruments and/or associated accessories.

Managing Partner and Principal Expert Witness, Dr. Don Rickert is certified as a Designated IMS EliteXpert. IMS ExpertServices, a leading full service expert witness and litigation consultant delivery firm in the U.S.

He is also a certified Expert with the Beche Group IP Services, the preeminent Expert Witness agency in the San Fransico Bay Area (i.e Silicon Valley). The Beche Group connects top litigators with the world’s preeminent expert witnesses, hard-to-find experts that are top in their field, for complex patent infringement matters.

Additional Details...

See also:

• Product Design - UI Design Expert Profile for Donald Rickert, Ph.D., IDSA
• Musical Instrument Design Expert Profile for Donald Rickert, Ph.D., IDSA

Don Rickert Research & Design™ (www.DonRickertDesign.com) focuses on:

DESIGN RESEARCH: Qualitative & Quantitative Research (Usability evaluation, Customer and Market Research, Observational Methods - Ethnography, Depth Interviewing, etc.), including statistical analysis of quantitative metrics, such as customer satisfaction, consumer preference and quality assurance data.

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MANAGEMENT CONSULTING: Focus on the areas of New Product Design (NPD), User Experience (UX) and Human Factors/Ergonomics

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DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF CUSTOM PRODUCTS: Experience and expertise spans a variety of industries, with a good mix of online media and other interactive products, as well as physical goods.

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Don Rickert Musical Instruments™ (www.RickertMusicalinstruments.com) focuses on:

• Designing and making high-end custom musical instrument creations for individual customers (usually professional performers)
• Inventing truly ground-breaking musical instruments for international design competitions

Learn More: see The New Don Rickert Musical Instruments™

Where We Are Located

The Don Rickert Research & Design™ AND the Don Rickert Musial Instruments studios (called “Wild Rock”) are near Hiawassee, GA, USA, a small town in the North Georgia Mountains. Wild Rock is on the boundary of the Chattahoochee National Forest Wilderness Area, which continues as the Nantahala National Forest Wilderness at the nearby North Carolina border.

 

Recent Don Rickert Musical Instruments News

Recent BIG News: Don Rickert Musical Instruments

Don Rickert Musical Instruments a Semi-Finalist in the 2012 Guthman Musical Instrument Design Competition

The Guthman Musical Instrument Design Competition, sponsored by the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, is an annual event to find the world’s best new ideas in musicality, design and engineering, Wired magazine has called the competition an “X-Prize for music,” and contestants have likened it to a TED Conference for new musical instrument designers.

Dr. Rickert’s entry, an Electro-mechanically Augmented Acoustic Violin (EAAV), bridges the gaps between acoustic violins and electric as well as MIDI violins. This musical instrument invention will generate several Design and Utility Patents.

A new improved version of EAAV is being constructed now.

Don Rickert Musical Instruments Reboot

The newly reformed Don Rickert Musical Instruments (www.RickertMusicalInstruments) is completing a transition from a low-margin online retailer of musical instruments (www.AdventurousMuseStore.com) and excessories (our own and other brands) to exclusively custom-designed and built high-end musical instruments. Customers now pay a premium rate for actual time and materials. Bows (for now, at least), consignments and some vintage instruments will continue to be sold via the Adventurous Muse Store. This will be changing very soon, as ALL musical products will be moved to the new D. Rickert Musical Instruments site.

The New Don Rickert Musical Instruments

Don Rickert Musical Instruments™ (DBA) is, like Don Rickert Research & Design™ (DBA), a division of the parent company, Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC. Don Rickert Musical Instrument started about 5 years ago in a “buyers’ market”, operating as a low-margin online retailer (www.AdventurousMuseStore.com) of musical instruments and accessories (our own and other brands). We are working to put this dog, Adventurous Muse Store, to rest, which will take a while, due to many other sites linking to it...but the closing of the Adventurous Muse Store WILL happen evenentually!

The strong performance of Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC in its other lines of business has fundamentally changed the game for Don Rickert Musical Instruments, opening the opportunity to essentially get out of the online retail business and to concentrate on important reputation-building activities like inventing truly ground-breaking musical instruments for international musical instrument design competitions (see link about Dr. Don Rickert's success at the 2012 Guthman Musical Instrument Design Competition). 

We have opened a new online group of galleries (not a store in the strict sense…and the new site still needs a lot of work!) called D. Rickert Musical Instruments (www.RickertMusicalInstruments.com) as a conduit for doing business with prospective buyers of our high-end (nothing on the site is a "bargain"!) musical instrument creations on a design consulting basis. This means that all of our musical instruments is priced on a true time and materials basis. Every instrument "build" is covered by a contract where deadlines, returns, "charge-backs" and the like are not legal options.

We can only do this because we currently DO NOT need the income, thus bringing back the satisfaction of inventing and making really special instruments for visionary buyers. The list of new musical inventions in our R&D pipeline is staggering.

We have repeatedly hinted and outright stated in various forums that this is what we would do when we had sufficient funding. We sincerely hope that our bold action will help all of the other struggling musical instrument studios to once again thrive; dispelling the illusion of "the bargain" propagated by eBay and the price comparison sites.

The YouTube Channel for Don Rickert Musical Instruments is “DoctorFiddle”.

Depite the confusion it may cause, the name of the blog associated with the new D. Rickert Musical Instruments (www.RickertMusicalInstruments.com) will continue to be called The Adventurous Muse (www.AdventurousMuse.com) due to its long history, countless links to it from other sites, and very good "SEO" equity. Visitors are slowly learning that the Adventurous Muse blog is now associated with Don Rickert Musical Instruments.

Look for insane greatness from the new Don Rickert Musical Instruments™ in the near future.