The Chatter We Make

The Theranos scandal made headlines last year. It gained a spot in nearly every respected publication, from podcasts to its own documentary. If you’ve somehow missed all the hoopla, here are the basics.

Recently, Colorado took a bold stance against the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries by capping the price of insulin — a life-saving medicine used by more than 7 million Americans — at $100 per month for each patient, regardless of how much insulin is needed. I followed this story closely not just because I’m a Coloradoan, but also because I’ve been a Type I diabetic for 35 years.

When your idea is really, really good, it’s almost inevitable that someone is going to copy it. Retroactive legal action is difficult and expensive, so follow these patent tips to get ahead of product copycats, knockoffs, and fast followers.

In late 2015, Segway, maker of the famous two-wheeled, self-balancing scooter, sued a company called Swagway, then-producer of a motorized transporter called Hovertrax — aka, a hoverboard. Swagway’s hoverboards were reported to cause fires and injuries (which they were already being sued for). Compounding the negative coverage were the many problematic hoverboard knockoffs.

A design around means developing your product with existing patents in mind and adding consumer value with new innovation. The starting point for this process is a patent search.

Artificial intelligence as it is starting to be employed is certainly new technology. You have to be aware that it is essentially the proverbial “robot” doing stuff, not a person. There are going to be glitches. But, in one sense, we have always had automated systems doing “stuff” for us so it is not unexpected that these systems are making their way into the legal industry.

Clients see a competing product with similar functionality to their own and immediately believe it’s a copy, even if the competitor developed the functionality independently. At that point, they don’t care how the attorneys deal with the situation — the attorneys are expected to find a way to shut down the knockoff.