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

On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:24:33 -0800, the renowned D from BC
<myrealaddress@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:24:42 +0000, Eeyore
<rabbitsfriendsandrelations@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



D from BC wrote:

What happens when you get caught using somebody's patent?

Guessing:

B) The lawyers try to clean me out

But they'll try that even if your kit only vaguely resembles their
patent too.

Had that happen to me at a client. We demanded a copy of the patent and
it was instantly clear it was inapplicable in our case.

FWIW, the lawyers found an about to expire patent on digital reverbs and
went round the industry making claims for payment. I gather Fender and
Peavey paid out rather than check it was crap. Syas a lot about the
quality/intellect of big company suits.

Graham


Ah...When the lawyers go fishing..


D from BC
myrealaddress@xxxxxxxxx
British Columbia
Canada

There are parasitic companies that buy up patents and then go suing
successful companies with vaguely related technology. See, for
example, RIM, who paid out $0.6 billion US to make the leeches detach
themselves, even though they would very likely have prevailed had they
gone to court (though with the US jury patent system, it's never 100%
for sure).



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@xxxxxxxxxxxx Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
.

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