I think I see what your saying. An Australian company who markets these uses a shuttle design which is similar to a design another company (ventamatic) owns the US patents on so we pay basically double for these products in the US than anyone I any other country because this company feels thier design is being used even though they no longer use it themselves. so they get paid a royalty for every intertap beer tap sold in the US only?
There are lots of other vendors still selling them to the states. Brewmaster was just one.
You got the essence of the patent issue correct. It's up to Ventmatic to police the unlicensed importers/exporters, so it becomes a game of "Whack-a-Mole." Since some moles are bigger than others, you go after them first. They don't have to shut all of them down to show due diligence in enforcing their patent.
Brew on