User:Tosel978/sandbox

IRAC Scenario

Company A is trying to introduce a highly-similar product to Company B to the market. Company B has a design patent on our products and is suing Company A for breaching company B’s IP rights.

Issue: Who has the right to that product? Can company A sell this product without breaching Company B’s IP rights?

Rule: Generally, companies have utility/design patents to protect their products/services from being used by competitors.(Patent, Siedel, 123pg)(Patent, Balegy, 526pg)

Action: Here, Company B is setting up a design and utility patent for all of its products. Even when the patent is still pending, Company B still has priority to argue the rights to its products.

Conclusion: Therefore, Company A is breaching Company B’s IP rights.

Neutral Voice

An potential legal issue a company might face in terms of Intellectual property is bleaching existing utility/design patents created by other established companies.

Generally, companies can file utility or design patents to protect their product or service offerings to protect their intellectual property and avoid usage from competitors

As an example, company A is trying to introduce a product to the market that is highly-similar to that of company B. With a filed design patent, company B has a design patent on its products and has the legal rights to sue company A for breaching competitor's IP rights.

Here, company B has set up design and utility patents for all its products. Even if the patents are still pending, company B still has the priority to argue the rights to its products. Therefore, company A is not allowed to introduce its new products and is breaching the competitor's IP right.

Therefore, having a utility or design patent is of utmost importance to argue the company's privileges to protect its products. It would be strongly recommended to prepare the utility patent or design patent if the current business has its differentiation based on product's utility or design.

For startups or new ventures, it is recommended to use a "grace period" when testing new products or service in the real market.

In the United States, there is "grace period" for new ventures. For one year, when companies disclose their invention or innovation while filing their invention application in the U.S., they can test their inventions in the public place or commercialized area for sale. It could be a useful tool for startups to decide whether they should pay and progress(submit) their patent application through disclosing and testing their products.

Sources/References.

'' George, Siedel. The Three Pillar Model for Business Decisions: Strategy, Law, and Ethics. pp. 123–126.''

'' Bagley, Craig.E. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Law and Strategy. pp. 526–530.''

'' "The Guideline for Startups". Startup Legal Support Group: 124–127.''

'' Bagely, Carig.E. The Entrepreneurship's Guide to Law and Strategy. p. 528.''