A patent question about a foreign product

[rocksolid]

I found a product in another country that I would like to produce here in the US. I have done a general patent search under the name in their langauage and the english translation and I can't find anything. How do I go about making sure I am not stepping on any toes?

 

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[firmwear]

http://askville.amazon.com/patent-exists/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=3086112

If you are inquiring as to whether you can patent a commercially available product: no.

The USPTO also searches foreign patent databases before issuing a patent in the US. Products that are already commercially available are generally not patentable unless you can find a novel and non-obvious use for it (with respect to the original patent).

If you are interested in learning about patents, I suggest reading "Patent It Yourself" by David Pressman, Nolo Press. It is the clearest, most complete, and most useful book on patents I have ever read (and I have read a few).

If there is no US patent protection for this product in the US, you should be able to produce it yourself without a patent.

A patent is only enforceable in the country where it was issued.

 

[rocksolid]

Thanks for the response. I'm not really interested in getting a patent, I just don't want to get in trouble for producing it here in the states.

 

[XOthermic]

dude that is a tough question. Give me more background. Do you blatenley want to rip this guys product off? Did you happen to come accross the idea yourself? Are you improving it in any way?

What if you were producing a product here in the states and else where in the world someone some guy started making it in his country?

It's a dog eat dog world fursure but at the same time... I think you should innovate on your design and not just rip products off.

 

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[rocksolid]

I had an idea for this product and I did some research on the internet to see what was out there. I came across this product and it is pretty much what I envisioned, but I will be improving it some. It is never my intention to just take somebody's idea, I have enough of my own.