What Happens When You Get Caught Using Somebody's Patent?

"D from BC"

...... Phil

The honor system requires that you use this device:

Remember, though, if you haven't paid the royalties on it you have to use it forever.

They take you to court and sue you; in order to avoid going broke from paying the lawyers, they mostly then negoatiate a retroactive royalty payment.

The court can order you to stop selling the offending embodiment of the patented idea until the case has been decided, which tends to strengthen their bargaining position.

On the other hand, most patents are obvious, and were invented by somebody else long before the patent was registered, so their bargaining postion is rarely as strong as it looks.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

I checked that link. Holy crapOla patent 6293874 is useless.. That'll never be mass produced. Only good for a few wacky ha ha's and then it's old.

I'm guessing some entertainer was trying to prevent someone from copying his comedy act.

D from BC snipped-for-privacy@comic.com British Columbia Canada

Brilliant!

Dave.

I invented that for one of my old bosses, but unfortunately never filed on it. He could really have used one. (This was 30 years ago in my first job, while I was taking a year off from my undergraduate education. It was at a camera store owned by some superannuated '60s radicals. This character was a real piece of work: a maoist radical turned skinflint capitalist. The one common thread was that it was All About Him.)

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Gee..You make it sound ok to rip a patent. :)

However, I have no idea how royalty amounts will be determined. Perhaps the royalties asked maybe so high it could be advantageous to just have an 'accidental fire'. :P Then close the company and let the fire insurance pay off the patent lawyers :P Just kidding...

D from BC snipped-for-privacy@comic.com British Columbia Canada

can't it's not a crime.

possibly.

:)

generic hitmen are cheaper :)

Bye. Jasen

None of the above if you can pay your lawyers more than their lawyers.

If the idea is worth it, it might make up for being reamed by the lawyers.

Depends on the patent. Some patents do represent genuine breakthroughs

- of my father's 25, at least two qualify (both covering applying the same insight to two rather different ways of doing the same job) as do two of mine (though my insights never gave anybody a useful commercial advantage). Most patents are generated by people who are busy reinventing the wheel - mostly because they don't know that their particular wheel was invented year ago, but sometimes because they want to keep on protecting their intellectual monopoly.

Haggling.

If your bargaining position is particularly weak ..

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

You are not liable until they officially serve you, or can otherwise prove that you knowingly infringed on the Patent. The mere issuance of a patent is not sufficient grounds to prosecute.

Thus, Step-1 will generally be a notice (usually in the form of a "Cease & Desist Letter" from their attorney) that you are infringing the patent holder's rights in some way and that continued infringement will be rigorously prosecuted.

Step-2 depends on your reaction to Step-1, which may include anything from ignoring the notice, defending your (perhaps identical) rights, and/or entering into negotiations, etc...

At least, that's my understanding of the way it generally goes in the US.

-mpm

The only thing a patent gets you is a head start in a court case. Anyway, to answer the above, the first thing you get is a letter from the company pointing out that they have the patent. Next is a "cease and desist" letter from their lawyer. Third is a court injunction to prevent you using their patent. From then on its lawyers, court cases, years and $$$$ - and may the entity with deepest pockets win.

I've heard the in many companies doing patent searches is strictly forbidden because if you knowingly violate a patent it can mean 3x damages

-Lasse

Cite? That makes no sense at all. Many companies are too small to care and the large ones had better know what they're getting into. Few patents are difficult to design around so going naked is really dumb. At my PPoE I did searches all the time, for both "offensive" and "defensive" reasons. It was encouraged and we had "free" access to search tools.

I'm also just guessing but if you reside in the country where the patent comes from, you could be prosecuted by some government agency. In the USA that would probably be the Justice dept.

It would depend on who catches you. If someone you are selling to discovers it, they may just discontinue doing business with you and not report it, because they don't want to play policeman.

Jean

That's the way I've seen it done. You don't get the letter, your customers do.

All that your customers have to do to avoid prosecution is to quit doing business with you and hire your competitor (the alleged patent holder). Software companies, in particular, love this one. Some of them would send out letters and refuse to cite actual patent numbers. Or forget the letters. Just make a press release and scare the crap out of their competitor's customers.

IIRC, there was an outfit in Redmond, Washington that tried this a number of times.

Interesting point.. If I rip a US patent (I'm in BC) without permission or royalties and mass produce it, I have no idea who's going to come knocking on my door.. US lawyers? Canadian lawyers? RCMP ? CSIS? The secret patent police. SPP ? The inventor holding a lit molotov cocktail?

D from BC snipped-for-privacy@comic.com British Columbia Canada

Wow that seems nasty...

Reminds me of

And there's the new movie too..Flash of Genius D from BC snipped-for-privacy@comic.com British Columbia Canada

I wonder if the lawyers sue the company (say incorporated company not sole proprietor). The person that ripped the patent doesn't get nailed just the company entity. So perhaps if I have someone yelling at me ' You ripped my patent ...You ripped my patent @#$@$!!! @#@! Beep beep..' Then to save on annoying court cases and lawyer costs.. I just shut down the company and sell all assets. Wipe everything. 'What company? What money? You're not getting anything..' I wonder if that can happen or has happened?

D from BC snipped-for-privacy@comic.com British Columbia Canada