patents in the DR

Maybe the following anecdote will help you understand how worthless patents are here.

The company called "Trace International" is in no way related to Trace Engineering, and has been making money off of their registered trademark for many years, and have even gone so far as to brand OEM inverter batteries "Trace" to make people think they are form the same company that makes Trace inverters.

The real Trace (now called Xantrex) has been upset about this for some time but can't do anything to protect the hijacking of their trade name in this country.

And a very wise Dominican

"Trademarked" a whole lot of Dominican products in the States. Things like INDUVECA and other very Dominican products. Now he lives off the royalties...

HB

adrianb said:

If I am in the DR, and selling online.. and a large amount of my target market happens to be in the USA.. Would I be affected by a US patent issue? Or would I only be affected by patents specifically filed in the DR?

My impression is that I'd be only liable for patents filed IN the DR. And since its such a small market, people don't normally bother.

Does anyone know more about this? It could end up being a significant competitive advantage to doing business from here.

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This is your conscience speaking. It might or might not be technically legal, but it isn't good business practice. Find a real business- if you are proficient enough to do what you are describing, there is no shortage of opportunities for you.

Besides, even if you find yourself technically on the right side of the law, since you are obviously violating the spirit of the law, you could easily find yourself outside the law later when the loophole is closed up and you will be forced to change your business model.

hi,



adrianb do you have a internet company in a free zone?


regards

AdrianB, I don't think being in the DR, or developing in the DR has anything more than a minute competitive advantage. For me, staying under the radar screen has always been my motto. And yes, this is a problem - the system is broken, intellectual property laws are in early development and the issue is solely around money. Wild West Stuff! Putting the DR into the mix, only serves to obscure the issue I think and will simply scare the scalpers off a little, as it would be too hard to figure out how they could get you to 'cut a check'.

Quoted from the article link that you posted: "After Sun engineers explained why they were not infringing, the IBM lawyers responded that with 10,000 patents, they would be sure to find some infringement somewhere, Reback says.

Instead, Reback said in a 2002 Forbes magazine article, IBM said Sun could "make this easy and pay us $20 million." After some negotiation on the amount, Sun cut a check. "

So, the issue is around 'cutting a check'. I do not think that there is anything anyone in your position can really do to protect yourself, excepting to patent any process, that you may think falls within the patent rules - I would think not in the DR, but the US patent office. This way, you shift the issue to the patent office - let them make the mistake. This may be a question to ask a good patent attorney. In terms of implementation methodologies and processes that we've developed, we've simply copyrighted those. In terms of technical development, we've put the source of everything that we've ever developed under an open source license. It used to allow us marginal protection - but not any longer. In general, our industry, our laws, our methods are very young really. We get used to the speed of technical development and think everything else around the issue follows the same speed. 'Tis not so.

So, will being in the DR afford a level of protection? Only in as much that you stay a little under the radar methinks. I'd again check out what the porn industry is doing in terms of this issue? Are they also simply 'cutting a check'?

adrianb said:

Here's the thing:
........
Probably the issue is whether selling to american consumers from here would infringe on a US patent. But I suspect it would not.

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This is indeed the question to ask - I think it would infringe. But the issue really is whether someone will come after you because of this... Well, it depends how hungry they are for your technology or your money. So, patenting in the DR for a measure of protection, I don't know whether it is worth it. It would be interesting to find out though. Simply in terms of legal jurisdiction I think there will be problems. I'll shoot the question off to my sister who specializes in International Law. She may be able to give a starting point on this.

The converse is also interesting. If someone takes your process technology in the US and uses it, even thought it may be patented here, what recourse do you have?

Someone could just rewrite your implementation methodologies and processes text, and then do what they want with it. Copyright only protects expression, not ideas.

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Yeah, but one has to be a little pragmatic. It so happens that the company that bought us out in the US use my stuff freely even now, despite copyright and without any credit to me... I think I can sue 'em but what the hell for. If they are so weak that they have to use mine, I simply have to develop another better one.

The good thing about your situation is also the bad thing about your situation. If someone were to try to keep you from doing business by hassling you legally on some technical patent issue they would have little chance of success because the country is the way it is.

But if they had even the slightest Tigueraje or Dominican gangster street-smarts, they could simply have all of your equipment confiscated and close your office on some trumped up charge (or no charge at all - sure it's not legal but it could happen and similar things have happenned here)

Your best bet if this is a real concern to you is just to keep your name and location out of the body of public knowlege - or at least those members of the public who may choose to make your life difficult.

adrianb said:

> But if they had even the slightest Tigueraje
> or Dominican gangster street-smarts, they could
> simply have all of your equipment confiscated and
> close your office on some trumped up charge (or
> no charge at all - sure it's not legal but it could
> happen and similar things have happenned here)

Interesting comment. I don't know if a typical US IT company would think that way - but it could happen. A low profile makes a lot of sense.

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If it's not porn, what business are you in?