Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 16:12:18 -0400
From: "Hobey Ford" <hobeyone-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Topo Gigio & other puppet patents /plus thoughts


It is true that a patent is only worthwhile if it is a great marketable
idea, but also if you are willing to defend it.  When my design patent was
copied almost outright.  I hired a Washington patent lawyer and by the time
things were settled. it was a draw financially.  I was distraught.  Then a
patent licensing guy called me and offered to get the situation under
control , in turn for a cut of the settlements.  After much talk, he got me
out of all the settlements  the lawyer had made and then with the help of a
madison Ave attorney who also works on spec.,  sued every last importer,
leaving the Chinese knock off companies completely out of it.  You just
can't get to them.  Every last company who was sued settled and a couple got
a licence to sell the knockoff.  The whole thing came back under control
within a year with no upfront out of pocket expenses.  US companies are
accountable whereas  out of country knock off companies are virtually
untouchable unless you have a lot of resources to do it.  So in the end, I
got compensated, the knock off importers dropped to very little  competion
and pay me to do so.  So by keeping the importing knock off companies in
play it makes it an undesireable product to knock off again, because someone
is already doing it.  The licencing guy was dead-on correct in how to handle
it.  I split the settlement with my co-patent holder Regina Marscheider  who
uses her share in her anti-child abuse program.  The licensing agent and the
attorney get their share.  We are all satisified, yet I still sucks that the
knock off companies can get away with what they do.  They made no attempt
initially to change the design and even copied the artwork.  The only change
they made to my design was to make the product so cheap that it breaks
almost as soon as you the package.

On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 1:36 PM, Mathieu René <creaturiste-AT-primus.ca> wrote:

>
>
> > The Hazelle patent shows up on e-Bay periodically.  I could not find
> > it at the moment.  However, someone is selling a copy of the patent
> > for the "Peepers" eyes.
> >
> > Jon
>
>
> What?
>
> How can people sell a copy of a patent that belongs to someone else?
> Even if they just charge for the paper and ink, isn't that totally immoral?
>
> What do you think, Hobey?
>
> And considering it's already available online for free...
> Can someone patent something and ensure that the public doesn't have access
> to the details of it?
>
> Although I'm a supporter of sharing methods and recipes as much as
> possible,
> I'm starting to see that for a time (up to his/her lifetime, in my
> opinion),
> the inventor should earn the rewards from the work!
>
>
>
>
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