Depending on the date of submission of the concept or device plans who is
liable. If by chance the other guy was the first to have them back in 1997
with a working concept, then the company will be liable for royalties to
him. If he can provide witness and date of concept of the manufactured
traction bars then he has a case against said company.
I would do some serious investigation on whether if it was his concept or
accuser first. If his< then he should file a complaint with the US Patent
office and prove his case. Believe me, this will not be the first case like
this.
-------------------------------------------
Steven St.Laurent
Test Engineer
Test Branch, GSD, MCTSSA
MARCORSYSCOM, USMC
760-725-2506 (DSN 365-2506)
Work:mailto:stlaurents@mctssa.usmc.mil
Home:mailto:saint1958@home.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon [mailto:jon@twistedbits.net]
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2000 1:19 PM
To: Dakota Mailing List
Subject: DML: DML and Patent violation problem
I thought I would post this here to see if there is anyone on the
list with any experience in this realm, so I can figure out what to
do. What do you folks think?
The short story is:
I got a message from this guy saying Rob Cobb's homemade traction
bars on the web site are in violation of their patent. I did a search
on www.uspto.gov but couldn't find their patent. I wrote back and
they said it was pending. (See the text included below for the full
correspondence.)
The page in question is:
http://dakota-truck.net/upgrades/TBARS/tbars.html
I am not sure of the exact date, but I do know that it has been
on-line since March of 1997 at the latest. According to them,
Rob's traction bars are "an exact replica". If they are just getting
their patent now, do they have a case? Does anyone have any
suggestions?
Thanks very much in advance!!
-Jon-
.---- Jon Steiger ----- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@twistedbits.net
------.
| Affiliations: AOPA, DoD, EAA, NMA, NRA, SPA, USUA; Rec & UL Pilot - SEL
|
| '92 Ram 150 4x4 V8, '96 Dakota V8, '96 Intruder 1400, '96 FireFly 447
|
`------------------------------ http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/
----'
--------------------------------------------
> > >Jon,
> > >We would like to notify you that the traction bars illustrated
> > > in the page that we have fowarded, are an exact replica of
> > >our traction bars. We would like to inform you that you and
> > >the author are infringing on our patent rights.
> > >Please remove this item from
> > >your page immediatly. This is just a friendly notice, as you
> > >were probably unaware of this. We consistantly check different
> > >pages to ensure that none of our exclusive products are being
> > > duplicated in any way.
> > >
> > >If you have any questions please e mail or call 909 825 2818.
> > >Thank you,
> > >Julio Monroy
> > >Trail Sport Unlimited, Inc.
> >
> > Julio,
> >
> > Thanks for writing. You are correct, I was unaware that there were
any
> > patent claims for that traction bar design. However, I have been unable
to
> > find any patents filed by yourself or Trail Sport Unlimited. (I am
> > assuming it was filed under a different name.) Could you please write
back
> > to me with the patent number to assist me in locating it? Thanks very
much!
> >
>
> Jon,
> Thanks for your e mail. As of today, the patent is pending. It will
be
> issued any day and at that time our company plans on
> enforcing it to it's full extent. This means that both you and Rob will
be held
> liable for any damages. Just for verification do a search (you probably
already
> have) under traction bars or Trail Sport and you will see that this
corporation
> owns the product Rob copied.
>
> Thank you for your time,
> Julio Monroy
> Trail Sport Unlimited, Inc.
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