From: PENQUAKR74@aol.com
Date: Fri Jun 07 2002 - 22:20:51 EEST
My following comments are qualified by my 20 plus years of experience as a
patent licensing professional for the Electric Power Research Institute, the
University of California, and Manager of Technology Commercialization and
Licensing for SRI International:
Whether a patent holder will go after someone with a homemade system depends
on the level of harm that might be done to his market position. If homemade
RP machines were to become a serious threat to his market, then it would in
his best interest to prosecute at least one "sorry ass" to make a point. The
other reason that a patent HAS to prosecute an infringer is that in order to
maintain his patent rights as exclusive, he must enforce his patent rights.
I have many cases that I can cite where a patent holder used preventative
measures to go after the smallest offenders to avoid a costly legal battle
down the road. Patent Holders are very serious about protecting their rights
and the federal government is serious about enforcing any judgment against
infringers, especially willful infringers. Universities and nonprofits are
usually the biggest offenders of patent infringement because they are able to
claim experimental use, i.e., they built the device or are using a process to
better understand the device or process and are not using it as an instrument
to accomplish another objective. If found out, the consequences can be very
costly.
Scott Taper
IPLicensingconsultants.net
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/
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