Q: Today have received a mail from Amazon that I'm infringe the patent. What should I do? How to avoid this?
My question is that a huge quantity of sellers are selling these coil hair ties across US (for e). The same shaped coil hair ties.
So, how can I sell them too?
Any suggestions?
A:
There are a few paths.
1) You obtain a license from the owner of the design patent. Most likely, you will have to pay a percentage of your sales price but licenses can be done all sorts of ways.
2) You stop selling in the US but only operate in countries without a design patent on this hair band. Note that you will need to avoid having the product made or sold in the US.
3) You make sufficient changes to the ornamental appearance of the hair band so that it does not infringe the narrow scope of this design patent. This is tricky and should be done with help from a patent attorney familiar with design patent work. It is possible that your current design is far enough away from the patented design that you are already clear of the patent if you went to trial. The next question is do you want to spend the money to go to trial over this product?
4) You and your patent attorney do some research and seek to invalidate the design patent so that it is no longer an obstacle.
5) You simply wait until this design patent expires February 4, 2029.
These may not be the answers you were looking for but a person with a patent, even the less powerful design patent, has some ability to keep others from making, using, selling, or offering to sell a product that infringes the patent.
I hope this helps.
Kevin E Flynn
Peter D. Mlynek agrees with this answer
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