Patent Infringement

[HarryJ]

I applied for my 1st patent Jan 4, 2001. The patent was awarded June 4, 2002.

Soon after I applied I began mailing out letters attempting to sell my idea. One of the companies I mailed out my idea to is now selling a similar item.

I did not use an attorney during the patent process. My fear now is that something is wrong with my patent that will allow this company to continue selling their item w/o actually infringing on my patent.

I have contacted this company about possible infringement and they told me to bug off.

Here is a link to my patent (#6,397,869)...

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=Jennings.INZZ.&s2=IL.INST.&OS=IN/Jennings+AND+IS/IL&RS=IN/Jennings+AND+IS/IL

Here in a link to the companies web site that is selling a very similar item (middle of page - "Supersuck Vent Tent")...

http://www.pikamtn.com/9bivouacgear.html

Thanks!

Harry J.

[email protected]

 

[divgradcurl]

Talk with a patent attorney -- infringement analysis is too complex to be done quickly by someone over the internet! In addition, anybody that opines as to whether or not they are infringing on your patent would be giving legal advice, so I don't think that any lawyers here will be giving you their opinion on infringement. Go see a local patent attorney to get an opinion. Note that a patent agent is also barred from giving an opinion on infringement unless he is working with and supervised by a patent attorney.