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CES is full of wild sights, but you don't often see US Marshals raid a display booth.
On Thursday, gadget lovers were treated to the sight of federal law enforcement officials packing up a booth run by Changzhou First International Trade Co., which makes a one-wheeled skateboard called the Trotter.
The raid was prompted by an emergency motion for injunctive relief filed by California-based Future Motion, which makes a similar board that balances over a single wheel, imaginatively called the One Wheel. The raid was earlier reported by Bloomberg.
The Marshals' actions highlights tension at the country's biggest consumer gadget tradeshow over cheap knock-offs and copy cats. The annual Las Vegas tradeshow often features bargain basement tech that appears to closely resemble existing products, some of which are protected by patents.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2016, @05:16PM
The Marshals came to enforce a design patent. I thought that was like the style of a chair. It can't prevent you from making any chair, just one that looks like the one in the patent.
Designing something is about form and function. For a one wheeled hoverboard, the single wheel in the middle with a low CG seems about function. Maybe some parts of the paint and shape are non-functional and so all form.
The Marshals came because the knockoff looked similar to the patented gadget. Was the similarity of necessity to get the function? Does this matter when enforcing a design patent?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2016, @06:30PM
If the marshals were enforcing a design patent, that makes the situation even more ridiculous. Whether or not something "looks like" something else is largely subjective.
Designing something should be first about function and, afterward, perhaps about form -- "form follows function."
In regards to the function and also the design/form, there certainly is prior art:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=462Jj1xSSqc [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=engi16bLJe0 [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2016, @02:49PM
These are all very old ideas. The SoloWheel was originally called the BC Wheel. Anyone over 50 who read newspaper comics as a kid will know why. My guess is that they changed the name from BC Wheel to SoloWheel to obscure the "prior art" for their patent application.
Here's my favorite "prior art" -- http://owv.berkeley.edu/ [berkeley.edu]
Isn't OneWheel just a miniaturized version of this concept?
No, it's not.
Design patents cover the usage of an item as well as the style of it.