Jan 20, 2023
Do these unicycles infringe either of these design patents? The judge ruled (incorrectly, in my view) that they might in this summary judgment order.
seen from Singapore
seen from Brazil
seen from Türkiye
seen from Poland
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Hungary
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from Kazakhstan
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from Sweden
seen from China
Do these unicycles infringe either of these design patents? The judge ruled (incorrectly, in my view) that they might in this summary judgment order.
Black Friday Seasonal Sale
On this Thanksgiving weekend, Inventist wants to extend a big Thank You and give a loud Shout Out to all of you who have purchased our products over the years. Your support has helped us to develop, grow and evolve. Without your support, Inventist would not be where it is today – leading the world in the development of totally unique and brand new consumer products. Check out our store for holiday season special pricing on most of our products from now until Monday. Including great deals on the Solowheel line of Rideables! And, of course, free shipping.
https://store.inventist.com/
Introducing our newest product: The Hoverwheel
Check out our Kickstarter campaign here
What is the Hoverwheel? The Hoverwheel is an electrically motorized, self-balancing wheel that fits directly under your foot. That's it! Everything you need for an e-vehicle – sensors, processor, battery, motor and wheel – is contained in one compact and neat module.
If you’ve been following us for a while, you know that Inventist’s owner, Shane Chen, is a prolific inventor. He came up with the idea of separating the two halves of his Hovertrax (the original hoverboard) in order to make an e-vehicle that would be better suited to riding outdoors (which the hoverboard was never meant to do). It's a concept that’s truly useful in its ability to move you from Point A to Point B in a fun and inventive way.
For more info on the Hoverwheel, including how the invention came to be, click the Kickstarter link now!
Inventist Turns 15 Years Old!
July is our birthday month! To celebrate our 15th anniversary, we’re offering free shipping in our store all month long on products currently in stock.
Since we started designing, manufacturing and then selling products from the imagination of our owner, Shane Chen, Inventist has always strived to present fun and unique products to the public. The AquaSkipper, one of our first inventions to hit the market, certainly measures up to our goals! We hope to introduce the new model of the AquaSkipper later this summer.
Over the years we’ve brought you other unique products, like the Hovertrax, Orbitwheels, Solowheel, and Lunicycle. We’re following these up with our new product in the field of rideable tech: the IOTAtrax. But there will be more! Shane is always thinking of new ideas, so be sure to check back with us often to see what’s new.
Thank you to all our customers, dealers and followers over the last 15 years. It’s been an interesting ride and we can’t wait to take it into the future.
Intellectual Property in China
Written by Shane Chen
Asked to give a presentation for the USPTO Roadshow in Seattle on November 16, 2017, Shane commented on his experiences as an inventor to the audience. We are presenting the speech as a blog. You can also click the link to find the USPTO presentation on their website. https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/11162017_Seattle_Roadshow(ShaneChen).pdf
I came to the US from China almost 32 years ago. I created a business named CID, Inc. and started inventing and making scientific instruments for plant physiology scientists. It was a nice, but small niche market. There were no patent infringements except from one company in the UK. My life was peaceful. Then I started inventing consumer products for my new company, Inventist Inc. That was about 16 years ago.
As soon as I started introducing my new products into the market I started dealing with knockoffs from China that impacted my business. So far, 7 of my inventions have been copied and sold worldwide. The popular ones are: a 3-wheeled scooter that I licensed to Razor scooters called the Powerwing. The Solowheel, an electric one wheeled vehicle you may have seen people riding around in the streets on. And the extremely popular hoverboard. But the ones that have caused fires are not mine. In fact, you probably have never seen mine: the original hoverboard called the Hovertrax which I later licensed to Razor.
99% of the hoverboards you have seen are illegal knockoffs. Based on a Chinese government report, there were over 1000 hoverboard makers who exported 4.6 billion dollars of hoverboards in 2015. The number didn’t go down in 2016 or 2017. For the 7 infringed inventions, I successfully sued many factories in China in the past 16 years. So, the Chinese patent system is working.
The government has been trying hard to protect intellectual property. Things are improving every year. Now they have added specific intellectual property courts in the major cities. My last case was in an intellectual property court. I heard that the penalties will be increased on infringers. For the products that are not too popular, the problems were solved after I sued a few infringers.
But for the popular products it has not worked. The problem is that there are too many infringers. You know China is the largest product maker. All of the factories are constantly seeking products to make. You can sue a few but there are many more. Often, when you win a lawsuit and shut the factory down, they will reopen again with a different name. Two Chinese judges on two different cases talked to me on the phone to explain the situation in China. They advised me to help create jobs by licensing to the factories instead. I realized it’s impossible to stop all of them by suing.
For a legal system to work we must assume most people obey the law. You can imagine if half the citizens don’t follow the law in our community, our police simply cannot protect the rest of us. It becomes a war, which is what I am facing in China for intellectual property.
However, I am not saying that half the Chinese factories don’t follow the intellectual property law. It’s just that they don’t understand it. For one thing, many of them are confused about the definition of “inventorship”.
I’ve met a factory owner who said, “our engineers didn’t copy your product, we only saw your Hovertrax Kickstarter project and then created the same on our own.” Also, someone showed me a Chinese news broadcast talking about a young inventor who invented the electrical one-wheel vehicle. They reported that the he saw my Solowheel on the web and then he created his own. So, he is considered an inventor of Solowheel, too.
Furthermore, much of the Chinese public don’t know that stealing intellectual property is a crime. I’ve also found out that most factories don’t even know where inventions come from. They make something because they see their neighbor is making it and figure that it must make money, so they copy the copies.
I don’t know if you have heard this, but often in one area or town, everybody makes the same thing. I saw a town where everybody makes ties. 80% of the ties made in China come from there. The tie you are wearing today may have come from there.
In another town, everybody either does aluminum extrusion or makes lingerie. And, the 1000 hoverboard makers are mostly in two cities. So, whether it’s a tie, lingerie or the hoverboard, they just want to make whatever their neighbors are making to be sure they can make money.
When Amazon froze all the hoverboard factory accounts, lots of people protested in front of the Amazon building in China with signs that said, “give us back the money from the blood and sweat of our labor”.
Someone told me that I was destroying the Chinese hoverboard industry if I sued. So, they only see the value of the product they made from their hard work. They are missing the fact that the idea of the product must come from someone.
I started to realize that in China, intellectual property is still a relatively new concept. And it will take time for the Chinese people to understand and respect intellectual property. In fact, the US and many other countries went through similar issues when their patent systems started.
I’ve even gone through this process myself. After coming to the US I was hired to design agricultural instruments. The first thing I proudly said to my boss was that I could redesign any of those instruments in the market. Make them cheaper. Sound familiar?
Instead he asked me if I could design something new, something better. After I started my own business, I bought a competitor’s instrument and asked my engineer to reverse engineer it, so we could use the technology for part of our own product. Even though there was no patent on that product, he was reluctant to do it.
I have to say living in America changed the way I think. After my own inventions were on the market, I never again wanted to make anything that other people had made before. The creative culture of America helped me become creative, too. You can imagine that if I had stayed in China, I might have become one of the most successful copiers! I believe Chinese companies want to do the right thing. It’s a learning process and China will get there some day. I can already see the difference from a few years ago. Many factories now ask me to license to them. It’s a step in the right direction. We have a great country and we should also try to understand others that are working their way up to our level of understanding.
My conclusion is that enforcement is often necessary and effective, but if you have a popular consumer product, don’t drive yourself crazy trying to sue everyone who copies it. Consider using the money to invest in more marketing and branding, and use your patent to support them. If your product is good, it will get copied, but don’t let it discourage you. Keep inventing.
Lunicycles and Gymnasts
Today we ventured to Naydenov Gymnastics Gym in Vancouver, WA to see if the local gymnasts would be interested in learning to ride our newest product, the Lunicycle. Not only were the girls intrigued; they were ecstatic to ride it!
Seeing these young ladies take to the Lunicycle with ease was astonishing. With minimal direction they were helping each other move across the floor flawlessly. There were definitely a few Lunicycle stars and we can’t wait to meet with them again and see their progress.
We’re hoping that we can get a few talented young ladies and gentlemen for our upcoming national campaigns (more to come soon!) with new retailers and various media outlets.
More Marketing was a New Years Resolution for the company. We’re working on that and SO MUCH MORE!
Some very extreme changes are coming soon. Join us for the ride! Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
New Year, New Changes
What can you expect?
· More inventions!
· More productivity!
· More Marketing!
New Year, New Inventist. 2016 is our year!
Any suggestions for us? Let us know!
And with the New Year comes…
Happy New Year!
2015 was a great year for Inventist; new product launches, licensing deals, entering huge retail stores, and who can forget the patent wars! We’re ready for all that 2016 has in store for us!
With the New Year we’ll bring new products to market, have our brands in huge retail locations (on store shelves!!), and continue to provide quality products and customer service to our loyal patrons and followers. Anything we could improve on? Let us know! We’re focusing on being the best company we can be and we can’t do that without a little input from our biggest and best critics!
The Holiday Season has officially passed. Now that things have slowed down around the office we’re prepared to buckle down and get ready for all we have in store for 2016.
Our New Year’s Resolution is to bring new products to life and gain more brand recognition! What’s your Resolution?
Also, we would like to take a minute to thank everyone who has purchased an Inventist product since the company first began. Without the backing and support from our valued patrons and followers we wouldn’t be where we are today.
Keep an eye out for us 2016! We’re coming at you with full force!