"In house" Engineering
"In house" Engineering
(OP)
Hello all,
Recently we were faced with a problem in our production process. I designed a new piece of equipment and solved the issue. Now I am begining to wonder about the pattent/legal side of things.
The question is: if you engineer a solution to a problem for your own use, ie your production process, could it still potentaly fall into an infringment issue, even if it's just used "in house"? If so, then how do I avoid such issues in the future?
Mon
Recently we were faced with a problem in our production process. I designed a new piece of equipment and solved the issue. Now I am begining to wonder about the pattent/legal side of things.
The question is: if you engineer a solution to a problem for your own use, ie your production process, could it still potentaly fall into an infringment issue, even if it's just used "in house"? If so, then how do I avoid such issues in the future?
Mon





RE: "In house" Engineering
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RE: "In house" Engineering
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
www.muleshoe-eng.com
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RE: "In house" Engineering
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RE: "In house" Engineering
RE: "In house" Engineering
Dan
www.eltronresearch.com
Dan's Blog
RE: "In house" Engineering
RE: "In house" Engineering
RE: "In house" Engineering
The litigation came when we had a supervisor show our machine to a VP of the OEM. All of sudden the group that built the machine had to give any prints, sketches, or personal notes to the legal department. I never heard the outcome but our machine is still operating. One of the Supervisors said that we settled out of court by paying a fairly large fee.
There was a lot discussion within the engineering group about modifying or building anything that had the OEM's name on it.
The irony of it is that the OEM now offers a machine based on our machine design principals. When we asked about this we were told in no uncertain terms that this was of no concern to us.
One of our problems were the company patented very few new ideas. I personally filed 5 records of invention with our patent department and they only pursued one patent. I have one patent on a subject completely out of my field.
One of the engineers who worked on the project who was a RC airplane hobbyist told us he was scared to buy a kit as he always made some modifications to the airplane or controls.
RE: "In house" Engineering
RE: "In house" Engineering
From experience, there are two types of patents: engineers who are simply making a buck and file for protection from predators, and the rest who file in the hope of a violation in order to make a buck. The patent law has so many loopholes and way to get around it, they are useless. I've had patents violated, infringed upon, "improved" and plain out stolen. Part of the business.
Don't let a patent stop you, most lawyers bank on your own fear in order to drum up business. I highly doubt there is a patent that specifically concerns your application.
Kenneth J Hueston, PEng
Principal
Sturni-Hueston Engineering Inc
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
RE: "In house" Engineering
Years ago, a decade before I arrived, The company I work for came up with a slick add on device for a fuel burning system. A patent was applied for in the proper time frame relative to first sale. Shortly after a more encompassing one was filed. "Our" attorney suggested we abandon the second one since his search came up with "prior art" (one odd example was mentioned secondarily in some goofy portable hair dryer ).
A few years later a competitor applied for a patent on a device functionally VERY similar to ours (that we've been selling and installing for over a decade) with about 30 "claims." A little later the patent application was re-issued (there is an odd legal word for that) with the "claims" list trimmed down by about 80%.