TEC, the Ketchum, Idaho based producer of the ScotteVest has sued 32 jacket manufacturers including: Bonfire, Burton, Helly Hansen, Nike, Nikita, Quiksilver, and V.F. Corporation over a patent (US Patent Number RE 40,613) that among other things allegedly protects a pocket design which includes a slot that allows a headphone wire to pass through, according to a story on Sports One Source.
According to the complaint, “each and every defendant named herein makes, uses, sells and/or imports at least one jacket and/or model of jacket that is designed to provide the wearer with wire management capabilities for portable electronic devices, including, for example, cellular telephones, mp3 players, iPods, and the like, that facilitates the management of wires running from the electronic device to the user.”
According to his myspace page TEC owner Scott Jordan, 44, is “a corporate lawyer with no design experience.” This entire lawsuit will probably get more interesting before it goes away. We’ll keep you posted.
[Link: Sports One Source]
All the companies should chip in and hire someone to finally build an audiophile-quality bluetooth headphone and tell this guyto go fuck himself.
I bought an X-Large jacket in 1999 that already had a hole for “wire management”. I don’t think this patent is valid as it is issued in 2001.
if there was something that was out in 98 and there was no patent application applied for, then it is public knowledge. And that can nullify his patent. The patent office never does their own search of public “products” they only search what is in there database for the last few hundred years. And believe me they find everything that’s in there. But if it was out, and it’s pretty similar to his, he just spent 8 years dealing with the patent office for nothing.
But the thing you saw on your X large jacket, maybe he improved upon it and gained the patent that way. But if you have ever done a patent search you’ll see that a patent references every invention ever registered, and most of the time they are similar in nature. Shit you never though existed, but it does. Rarely does an invention ever stand alone. These days, we just improve upon one another’s ideas. And that’s not a bad thing, as a small minute change to something can make a big difference. Like, you can’t add a third sleeve to a jacket and gain a patent. But if this third sleeve helps you fly or something crazy you can. The idea is 1 plus 1 has to equal 3, or a hybrid of sorts.
But if he did go about it the right way, and Burton and all of them, never even thought to do a patent search for his idea which is what seems like just happend, and they just assumed it was all public knowledge for everyone to rip off, typically as all the companies in this industry do, then they are all fucked and will probably have to pay him a royalty. It looks like no one did their homework. And if so, they should all pay up the nose.
Patent law is pretty crazy, but if serves a purpose. It allows the little guy, some leeway and protection.
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