Patent question

[KaiineTN]

I've been looking into a product idea I have, and I found something similar patented. While the name of the patent broadly defines what I would want to build as well, the patent goes into the details of their own design. This product wouldn't introduce anything "new," rather simply put things together in a way that is intended to be used in a certain situation.

So I guess my question is, because what I would build would definitely qualify under the title of their patent, am I screwed? Or since they go into the details of their specific design, can I create something different but with the same use?

I could compare their patent to, say, an adjustable height tv table, where inside the patent they have their specific designs/descriptions for said table. Does that mean that no one else can make an adjustable height tv table? If so, that's ridiculously lame. >_<

[kinghooter00]

i'm gonna go research patents, tweak them alittle and call them my own.



i'm just bustin ur balls.....

[KaiineTN]

It just doesn't seem like this particular thing should be patented so broadly is all. It doesn't seem right to me.

Patents are supposed to allow an inventor to have the chance to get back some of the costs of developing something new, and provide incentive, but this is something that pretty much anyone could back in their garage after a run to a hardware store. It's cheap, easy, nothing new, etc.

I guess I just don't understand patents zzz

[kinghooter00]

i was just giving you a hard time.... If something is broad like that, you should be able to put your own deal out there too. But i don't have a clue about all the legal shit that goes behind all that kind of stuff....

[Martrae]

Kind of depends on the patent, I think. I can remember when Polaroid came out with the first instant camera and Kodak quickly followed. Polaroid sued and won. Kodak was knocked out of the instant camera business and the company never really recovered.

[kinghooter00]

own'd

[Minrott]

Your design has to be different.

Just because you have a TV table and they have a TV table, doesn't mean I can't make TV tables. It just means that your design has to have some variations that differ from the original patent.

This is also where patent lawyers make money convincing judges that your design, while slightly different, is actually not different enough.