Fernand Martin, George Flersheim and Victor Bonnet together have many patents to their names.
Patents have a limited lifespan and after a number of years or if the annual costs are not paid, the patents expire and others can use them freely.
For example, I found a patent from 1923 that has a great similarity with a toy from Fernand Martin.
It is the “Le Bateau Godilleur” from 1879, ( This toy has no Martin product number. In the books known to us, this toy has the number 02, but the latest discoveries show that this toy is one of the toys with probably no number ) )the working is based on the “Rubber Band” mechanism according to patent FR128445.
After 1897, Martin no longer used this mechanism.
Now I found an almost similar toy in a patent search engine with patent number FR562928A.
This patent from 1923 was applied for by Mr. Joseph and René Bienvenüe with the name Godilleur-Jouet.
If you look closely at the drawing you will see the similarity with the Martin toy, the same shape of the boat, a sailor at the rudder and the “Rubber Band” mechanism on the inside.
The only difference is that the sailor now moves in a different way then with the movements of the rudder, see Fig.2 .