An equipment manufacturer’s customer list isn’t IP.
The customer list is IP/trade secret.
That is up to the judge. Financial records are most likely subpoenaed to calculate damages. I would assume client information would be hard to hide.
Just because I purchased a piece of garbage x10 from precision does not mean I use it as per the manual and that is also not grounds to expose a lab’s process. The labs going to trial for this must be feeding the prosecution ammunition.
A sale for a complete system, install, and engineering docs makes it hard to play dumb when you are selling products that are consistent with those made in the systems in question.
Just throwing it out there that the type of infringement the manufacturers of the patented equipment committed (direct infringement) is categorically different from the type of infringement committed by the customers who bought and operate the equipment (induced infringement).
The company commiting direct infringement is liable REGARDLESS of if they were aware of the patent. The customer commiting induced infringement is not necessary liable for the period of time when they weren’t aware of the patent. This means, the customers cannot be forced to pay damages for the period of infringement which occured before they were aware of the patent…meaning they can pretty much continue to play dumb all the way up to when they get served.
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Agreed. However, client info from a manufacturer is a probably where the trail to being served starts. That, or open advertisement on social media.
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Glad I don’t sell equipment but if I did, I wouldn’t hand over any client records. Also I’ll bet dollars to pesos that China gives zero fucks about this patent.
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If you want to win a lawsuit, you usually have to give up the information that the sitting judge sees as relevant to the case. What would your argument be if your records were subpoenaed?
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house fire, I guess it doesn’t really matter because I would refuse to cooperate
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Yeah I mean…everyone who’s been buying stainless off the shelf has been getting taken for a ride by these CLS manufacturers. The labs who built their own systems piecewise and got engineers to stamp the designs … Those guys are gonna remain under the radar. My last lab in Oregon basically built their own CLS and satisfied the fire marshall, so they’re simply not on a client list and the equipment they’re operating is trade secret. The patentee will literally never have the means of becoming aware of them. This is maybe more common in larger industries that have teams of engineers and PEs on staff.
Fwiw, I don’t necessarily think the patent holds up when you consider how much prior art their is and it’s lack of novelty. One standard/legal precedent for something being direct infringement is that the infringement has to be pretty much spot on to the claims made in the patent…so even small deviations from the patent would make a device novel enough to not be infringement. My joke is - just throw a clock on it and suddenly it’s novel.
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clock you say?
Pretty sure ours has a clock on it…
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It sure does have a clock.
Does that classify it as a ticking time bomb?
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What’s thiiiiiiis
Abandoned.
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That patent reads like a middle schooler wrote it in a hurry before recess was over. Put that shit on the fridge next to the macaroni art.
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