Drama at CES - US Marshalls raid hoverboard booth

[Bernard Murphy]

US Marshalls seized a one wheel hoverboard and associated signage. Claim is that the product violates an active US patent: You can't make this stuff up - CES really does have it all.

U.S. Marshals Raid Hoverboard Booth at CES - Bloomberg Business

 

[Daniel Nenni]

First of all they are not "hover boards" since they do not hover. Second, this is a multi million dollar personal injury legal bonanza in the making.

Do you remember the company that created a turbo pogo stick? No? Exactly....

 

[Bernard Murphy]

Not so sure about that Dan. The millenials love them and it's a fad - all fads pass fairly quickly. More interesting to me is that the Chinese still don't seem to understand the concept of IP rights. Maybe more prosecutions will help.

 

[Tom Simon]

So it seems the Onewheel skateboard company, holder of the patents, initiated this action. So technically it is private action through the courts. It will cost a fortune for them to go after every patent violator in China. Sounds like a legal nightmare for the patent holder.

 

[Bernard Murphy]

Perhaps they could work out a deal with a patent troll. The trolls have plenty of resources to pursue violators and some kind of licensing revenue sharing model could benefit the inventor?