Let’s start with a simple understanding. If you have even the slightest suspicion that you want to patent a product, you need to hire and get legal advice from a patent lawyer or a patent agent. This blog is not legal advice. I am not your lawyer or your agent. I am not providing you with any legal advice, representation, or counsel. You and I have no attorney-client relationship. The purpose of this blog is to introduce you to the vocabulary that you will need when you got to a patent attorney and ask him to help you patent your product.
The main thing that you do with your patent, after the process of patenting your product, is that you use the patent to convince other people not to make, sell or use your product without your consent. Stated otherwise, you convince people to pay you for your product.
When someone infringes your patent by making, selling or using your product without paying you or otherwise securing your consent, you have a variety of options to stop them. The fact that you have patented your product can be very helpful in stopping the product pirates from destroying or your market and undercutting your price.
Let’s talk about a hypothetical business named “Pasquale’s Pizza Ovens.” For this example, let’s assume that “Pasquale’s Pizza Ovens” sells a pizza oven from Austin, Texas and has completed the process of patenting the pizza oven product. Pasquale’s Pizza Ovens has been wildly successful and is the leading name in Pizza Ovens. Let’s assume, for this example, that Pasquale has done the right thing and hired a lawyer to successfully complete the process of patenting his pizza oven.
Because the buzz around Pasquale’s Pizza Oven is so great, some sleazy rip-off artist in New Jersey subsequently starts selling second-rate copies of an oven that infringes Pasquale’s patent. So, people get on the Internet and search for pizza ovens and they end up buying from the rip-off artist in New Jersey rather than the real deal from Austin, Texas because the rip-off artist is selling at a lower price. He has no R&D cost for developing the oven. This is a problem for Pasquale. To make matters worse, the rip-off artist in New Jersey makes bad pizza ovens. They infringe the patent on the product, and they are no good. So, he is not only stealing from Pasquale by undercutting his price but also harming the faith of the market in the new form of pizza oven.
Because Pasquale went to the trouble of patenting a product, he has many options for dealing with the rip-off artist in New Jersey. Pasquale will go to the lawyer who handled patenting his product. The lawyer will then send a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the rip-off artist in New Jersey quit making the infringing oven. Let’s assume, for the sake of this discussion, that the sleazy rip-off artist in New Jersey refuses to quit making the infringing oven.
What probably happens next is that Pasquale will file suit for patent infringement. His lawyer will file a law suit alleging that sleazy rip-off artist in New Jersey is making an oven that infringes the patent on Pasquale’s product. Because Pasquale has taken the time and gone to the expense of patenting his product, his chances of winning the lawsuit and stopping the sleazy rip-off artist in New Jersey are significantly enhanced. This is the key. Patenting a product helps you resolve disputes without having to break some guy’s legs.
Remember: This blog is not legal advice. I am not your lawyer or your agent. I am not providing you with any legal advice, representation, or counsel.