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Comment by ta20240528

11 days ago

Literally patents.

But you have to take out a copy of the patent in EVERY country you want protection. Most companies don't do this and then whine about copies.

And lest someone whose never done it says they don't work: note how diligently generic drug companies wait for patents to expire.

7 comments

ta20240528

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nickff  10 days ago

What you’re describing is monstrously expensive, and doesn’t actually prevent IP violations, it just allows you to recover some of your losses, which is also expensive, and is unrealistic if the violators are fly-by-night operations.

  • ta20240528  9 days ago

    1) The alternative is for millions of local-currency patents in Lesotho to automatically be valid for two decades in USA, EU, and Japan.

    2) An of course it doesn't prevent IP violations - Eurocopter (now Airbus helicopters) had to spend millions to enforce their patents against the thieves* at Bell helicopter.

    https://www.bananaip.com/intellepedia/bell-helicopter-v-euro...

    * not my preferred choice of words, but its the tone on this forum.

    • vel0city  9 days ago

      I'm confused by the ending of this article. It seems like two mutually exclusive outcomes happened.

      > The court held that the landing gear certified and sold by Bell Helicopter on its Model 429 helicopter, namely the Production Gear, does not infringe the Eurocopter patent. The court invalidated all but one claim of Eurocopter’s patent. Bell Helicopter is, therefore, free to continue all use and sales of its Model 429 helicopter with its existing landing gear.

      So it doesn't infringe and they can continue to use the landing gear. But then

      > In addition to awarding to Eurocopter damages and punitive damages, the judge also issued an injunction enjoining Bell from manufacturing, using, or selling the infringing landing gear, and also ordered Bell to destroy all infringing landing gears in its possession.

      What? I'm clearly missing something here.

      1 reply →

  • aleph_minus_one  10 days ago

    > What you’re describing is monstrously expensive

    I would actually consider this to be an desirable side effect: if you want governments to enforce your monopoly using their state authority, you better pay for this really well. :-)