Panagiotis Verdes

Panagiotis Verdes is a Greek inventor and is known for being the first person to mass produce 6x6x6 puzzles and 7x7x7 puzzles. He is also known for founding the company V-Cube.

Verdes was born in Chiliomodi, Korinthos, a province in southern Greece, where he graduated from high school. He followed his passion for constructions and studied at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki from 1965 until 1970. During his career, he was primarily involved in building, road and public network constructions until his retirement in 2003.[1]

V-Cube
The V-Cube 6 in solved state
The V-Cube 7 in solved state

V-Cube is a brand name owned by Verdes Innovations, a company owned by Panagiotis. The V-Cube brand is used to sell puzzles that are similar to the original Rubik's Cube. The brand is known for being the first to mass-produce the first ever 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 puzzles, [2] and for being the first to create a design that would allow for puzzles up to the 11x11x11. [3] Prior to Verdes' invention, the 6x6x6 cube was thought to be impossible due to geometry constraints. Verdes's invention uses a completely different mechanism than the smaller Rubik's cubes; his mechanism is based on concentric, right-angle conical surfaces whose axes of rotation coincide with the semi-axes of the cube.[3] The patents for the cubes were awarded in 2004, and mass-production began in 2008.

V-Cube 3 Controversy

In December of 2010, Verdes Innovations started issuing takedown notices to online webstores to take down pages for the Dayan Guhong and Maru 4x4 for "patent infringement". While most people weren't upset about the Maru 4x4 being taken down being that it was extremely similar to the 4x4x4 cube in the V-Cube patent,[4] the Dayan Guhong didn't share many similarities to the 3x3x3 shown in the V-Cube patent.[5] This made those in the cubing community upset, given there was no evident reason at the time for the cube being taken down, and also because it was one of the best cubes for speedcubing at the time. Eventually, Verdes Innovations reversed the takedown notices and allowed for the Maru 4x4 and Dayan Guhong to be sold again.

At the time, the reason as to why the Guhong was taken down was unknown. There was no statement from Verdes Innovations as to why they issued takedown notices for the Guhong, and things only became more confusing in 2012 with the release of the V-Cube 3. The V-Cube 3 featured a design that shared very little similarities with the 3x3x3 in the original V-Cube patent, but looked very similar to the design of the Dayan Guhong.[5] This made those in the cubing community even more infuriated at V-Cube, because it seemed they had wrongfully taken down the Guhong and copied it's design. However, it turns out that they did still follow their patent, just in a different way, and that the Guhong did share similarities with the V-Cube patents. Despite this, people in the cubing community hated the V-Cube brand for this. Nowadays, V-Cubes aren't seen very often in cubing competitions, however, Verdes' design is still seen in newer cubes today.

References
  1. "Panagiotis VERDES - Inventor of V-CUBE™ technology". www.v-cubes.com. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  2. "Panagiotis VERDES - Inventor of V-CUBE™ technology". www.v-cubes.com. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  3. Slocum, Jerry (2009). The Cube: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Bestselling Puzzle. United States: Black Dog & Leventhal. ISBN 978-1-57912-805-0.
  4. , "Cubic logic toy", issued 2004-05-13
  5. epub.cnipa.gov.cn http://epub.cnipa.gov.cn/pam.action. Retrieved 2020-10-20. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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