KickstarterForum.org

[mikecTH]

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone has any knowledge or experience of this please.

Today we noticed today that a new project materialised on Kickstarter and it appears to be in direct breach of our granted patent.

Does anyone have any experience of this ? Are kickstarter pro-active in these areas and are they obliged to provide the details of the offending project creator so that our legal team can send them the required notices etc ? (cease and desist)

What territories are covered by Patents on Kickstarter, is it where kickstarter organisation is based, or only if the creator exports to the territories covered by the patent. There seems to be some information on Kickstarter about Trademarks and copyright, but nothing about patents.

Our campaign clearly states that we have patents granted and the other campaign has used the same keywords in the title.

After it is brought to the attention of kickstarter are there any obligations on them in terms of hosting material by a creator which may be in contravention to a granted patent ?

Thanks
Mike

[lowkey]

if they practised sales in your country or have any representative entity within your patent granted then you can do something about it.

else, i dont think thats a big issue. much like every watches there is in the crowdfunding arena nowadays.

[eMinnow]

Don't forget, a patent is only as good as the money you have to defend it!

[Cristina]

This post has been moved to the Kickstarter and Crowdfunding Questions Only (Strict) section.

[No Mess Charley]

I have to admit the "patent" issue is one that gets me riled up! My understanding of the process is that you can apply for a provisional patent in any country in the world, which once issued, "supposedly" gives you 12 months protection for your invention world-wide. In the ensuing 12 months you need to develop your invention, get it to market, and then go about applying for a non-provisional patent in every market that you want to sell your product around the world, which ends up costing the fledgling business a fortune. My issue is, isn't it time for the international patent industry to get into the 21st century? Has nobody told them that there is now a thing called the Internet? Surely there should now be a worldwide online patent registry, rather than individual country registries? Why is it that someone can write a song, or write a book or speech, and they have universal rights to every line and verse they write? If someone, somewhere else, anywhere in the world, copies just one line or verse of their compilation, they are immediately adjudged guilty of plagiarism and libel in international courts for beach of copyright? But if someone, somewhere in the world invents a unique physical product, they have to go through this huge expense of filing for individual patents, only to have protection against "product plagiarism" in the countries that they have registered their patents in. However, in this day and age of Internet shopping, you can have a US patent for a product, but if someone copies your product idea in Indonesia, or India, they can sell it online directly to any consumer throughout the world. The frustration is of course, the problem has to be resolved by the patent industry themselves, and the last thing you can expect is, for them to kill the goose that is laying their golden egg!!

[rozebuds]

I totally agree with you Charley. We are set to launch our campaign next Tuesday (May 16th) and have spent a crazy amount of time and money on our patents. The process for inventors is laborious and costly, but seems to be absolutely necessary to provide some level of protection.

[SantaMonica]

You might list your issued patent numbers on your page; I did not see any.

I hear that Ebay is good about removing listings that infringe utility patent claims. Maybe KS is too.

[gustofwisdom]

I think a lawyer would be the best person to speak to about this. Preferably someone with IP litigation experience.