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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: 2) by CirclesInSand on Saturday January 09 2016, @05:50PM
I thought the whole point of patents is to recoup your R&D costs
No. It has become that, but it is a bad reason.
Originally the public reason was to prevent knowledge from being lost. If you patent something, then you have to describe how it works. The monopoly is a trade for disclosure, any R&D reimbursement is just coincidental.
This is also why designs that can be deduced from a working product shouldn't be patented. There is no public benefit of disclosure, because the public knows the design sufficiently just from inspecting the product.
If someone wants R&D to be reimbursed, he should just get in line with the rest of the well dressed Washington DC beggars.