ABSTRACT
A patent dispute concerning the disparate non-positive rotating counterweight drive mechanisms employed in mechanical grape harvesters was resolved using kinematics and rigid body dynamics. In particular, contention that the allegedly infringing patent violated the single pivot axis claim of the predecessor patent was proved by analysis to be incorrect because the suspension system at issue was constituted as a four-bar linkage rotating about an infinite number of instantaneous centers which could not be construed to represent a single pivot axis. Analytical development of the governing equations for free body motion and the fundamental means of their interpretation from standpoint of inertia forces, restoring spring forces and Coriolis damping forces are discussed in the paper
