Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I`m not a patent attorney, but this particular topic is huge! It`s one of the key pillars on which a potential global economy will have to rest. The overall concept is intellectual property rights, and at the moment there are certain countries that in particular abuse the principles.

My understanding of it is that the US won`t do much for individuals like your hypothetical self. They "may" try to do something if the patent involves billions of dollars, perhaps like a pharmaceutical or technical process.

Even there, not much can actually be done so there has to be some sophisticated negotiations that take place. And that gets into "tiered" technologies, where First world nations will say that a technology has elapsed. That frees it up for Second world or Third world nations to "freely" copy the technology.

At that point, the copied products are so much cheaper, the US benefits through increased imports and foreign exchanges.

The problem is why would hypothetical you bother to create anything at all if you couldn`t profit from that something? The current thinking is to mandate global protection for a period of years, based on an unknown formula at the moment.

You would benefit and control the patent for that number of years, then give it up. Similar, perhaps to the generic drugs market.

Another possible option is to have the US gov`t. subsidize patent ownership and guarantee X years of profit, after which the property could be copied by nations in the next tier down.

It`s a really complex problem, and for now the only real enforcement option is a sort of balance-of-theft. If Israel persists in illegal copying of US technology, then the US will stop buying some critical export from Israel until intellectual property rights are enforced by the Israeli government.

Bottom line, this is a current worldwide problem. Nobody yet has a real solution, other than whatever intellectual property rights agreements and treaties that have currently been put together.

On the eBay problem, you could bring a suit against eBay and prevent them from allowing the listings. That`s what`s going on with YouTube, and places the burden on eBay (or YouTube) to directly police their own system. However; with millions of listings, how does eBay validate or verify that any particular item is in patent violation?

a US patent gives remedy against those in the US who make, use, or sell or import the patented good.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

Thanks very much to both of you for the replies. And especially to CraigL - thanks for taking the time for such a lengthy, detailed, and yet concise response that definitely answers my question (or rather confirms that my question remains a valid concern for everyone in the situation of my "hypothetical self")

Note that James IS a patent attorney, and makes the point that remedy (enforcement action) is available against anyone within the US who infringes on the patent. So you would be able to at least entertain an action against eBay. It`s the practical aspect of that action that`s the problem, and how much time and money you`d be willing to invest in the overall case.

Hey Blanktorp,

Just a few other comments.

1. If you are to take action try to find the choke point (that's normally the importer or maybe ebay as Craig L pointed out)
2. Sometimes Chinese suppliers will want to work with you and give you a commission for selling your product is other parts of the world where there is no patent. Especially if they think you'll have more ideas in the future.
3. If you are creative, then you can always focus on the next thing so that the copies are always obsolete and you are the high end supplier.

I hope that helps with the benefits from you hypothetical.

probably need to hire a lawyer

-------------------------

James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com