Here we go again. It seems like suing table saw manufacturers is going to become a new hobby unless courts start getting some sense and throwing out these cases. This week a Chicago man sued Bosch Tool Corp. over being injured by what he charged was an "unnecessarily unsafe" table saw.

The suit, filed by Marek Kolowski in Cook County Circuit Court, said he was injured by a Bosch table saw on a job site in September 2008 causing unspecified "severe and permanent" injuries. In almost a carbon copy of the Ryobi tablesaw lawsuit, Kolowski charged that Bosch "was aware of technological advances such as a guard mechanism or a flesh-detecting braking device since at least 2000 and colluded with its competitors and others in the power-tool industry to keep those alternatives off the market."

The lawsuit also charged that Bosch "has also actively lobbied the Consumer Protection Safety Commission to prevent the adoption of flesh-detecting systems as a safety standard on table saws."

The suit, of course, doesn't mention that the SawStop technology being mentioned would require every table saw to cost upwards of $100-$150 more in price and potentially cost $60 to replace the brake mechanism in the event of a false triggering. If the SawStop technology were deemed non-proprietary and the licensing fees reduced or removed, then perhaps the mandatory implementation of it would make sense. As of now, these rulings will ultimately only serve to make a single company very very wealthy.

The suit claimed negligence and product liability and seeks more than $30,000 in damages. As with our other article on this topic, the mandatory implementation of this technology would be akin to requiring anti-lock brakes on scooters, motorcycles and cars - and would lead to a loss of choice on the part of the consumer. The entry-level table saw would vanish overnight.