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Topic: infringement by customer of original infringer (Read 1136 times) |
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karl12345
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Posts: 2
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infringement by customer of original infringer
« on: Dec 7th, 2007, 8:06am » |
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Hi. We wish to enter into a royalty deal with a US manufacturer for our product. We have a US patent pending. Should the US manufacturer try to infringe our patent, we would pursue them (though at this stage we have no reason to believe they would). However, if they sell the product that infringes our patent to a retailer who then sells it to a consumer, is that retailer also infringing the patent? Can we also have a claim against the retailer? Thanks
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CriterionD
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Re: infringement by customer of original infringer
« Reply #1 on: Dec 7th, 2007, 12:27pm » |
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This depends largely on the "royalty deal." In the event your patent issues, in lieu of any agreement between you and the manufacturer (which could include an implied agreement), the manufacturer would be infringing on your patent just by manufacturing your product.
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www.criteriondynamics.com
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TataBoxInhibitor
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Posts: 456
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Re: infringement by customer of original infringer
« Reply #2 on: Dec 8th, 2007, 12:08pm » |
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on Dec 7th, 2007, 8:06am, karl12345 wrote:Hi. We wish to enter into a royalty deal with a US manufacturer for our product. We have a US patent pending. Should the US manufacturer try to infringe our patent, we would pursue them (though at this stage we have no reason to believe they would). However, if they sell the product that infringes our patent to a retailer who then sells it to a consumer, is that retailer also infringing the patent? Can we also have a claim against the retailer? Thanks |
| Between companies, generally, when selling a product or some type of IP is transferred, sometimes there are indemnity clauses, and if not, the Uniform Commercial Code provides indemnity, in situations like this the intial infringer is on the hook, not those sold to. Regards,
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karl12345
Newbie

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Re: infringement by customer of original infringer
« Reply #3 on: Dec 10th, 2007, 5:09am » |
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So what about the situation where a Chinese company copies the product and uses an importer to bring the product into the States? I assume we can go after the importer - lets face it without Chinese IP protection the 'copier' is off the hook.
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Bill Richards
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Posts: 758
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Re: infringement by customer of original infringer
« Reply #4 on: Dec 10th, 2007, 7:03pm » |
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You could also use the International Trade Commission to stop imports.
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William B. Richards, P.E. The Richards Law Firm Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 614/939-1488
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