Right, I understand that "Helice" isn't patented. But your French quote above does refer to "the system Helicobloc, which is a VC patent and which is registered as such . . . " Which means that a gun marked "Helice" could not have used the VC-patented system, until the patent expired--although they could have slipped through with some variant. Too bad M. Verney-Carron didn't say when the patent expired. But there are bunches of Helice-marked guns floating around (or some derivation of Helice that does not include one of the several names VC apparently copyrighted), and they all tend to be pretty highly regarded as good, solid firearms--even if a maker can't be identified (which it can't, on most of them).