Vinyl Wrapping - Can it be Patented??

[Corey Simpson]

Hello All,
My name is Corey Simpson, I own and operate a sign shop Signlab, in Adelaide, South Australia. We have been wrapping cars, vans, boats etc for 15+ years and over the last 6 years we have been wrapping coffins for a local coffin manufacturer and some funeral homes. We are being sued for coffin infringement by a Coffin Manufacturer who has an Innovation Patent (2013) on wrapping coffins. They claim we are copying the way they wrap their coffins?? I believe there is only one way to wrap a 3-Dimensional object: design/print/laminate and apply using a squeegee, knife and heat gun. I am interested to hear if anyone has heard of a patent on vinyl wrapping or had any experience in this area.
I look forward to feedback.
cheers
Corey Simpson

 

[rossmosh]

I don't live in Australia nor am I a lawyer, but my opinion is to ignore them. It seems they have the US equivalent of an application patent which likely isn't actually applicable/enforceable. What you want to do is have them waste as much money as possible trying to get them to enforce this patent. Force them to pay their lawyers to write you letters and provide you info.

What companies do is basically get these ridiculous patents. Then they use their lawyer buddy to send out letters to any competition and scare them. Their goal is to bully the market enough so they gain a monopoly. The law SHOULD find in your favor.

 

[Bly]

Tell them you do it a different way to the way their patent describes.
Then make them prove it.

 

[SignosaurusRex]

Australia has some very interesting (and bizarre) patent laws, especially in the "Innovation Patent" category. You would be well to consult an 'Intellectual Property Attorney'.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Patent offices often grant patents in error and until challenged in court are an unknown as to their value. For example, a number of years ago I had a patent attorney put in an application to cover a product we brought to market that added friction feeding capability to Gerber 15" pin fed plotters. There were 32 claims made in total. After a couple of years the U.S. Patent Office replied. 30 of the claims were rejected. One had no particular value but was granted. And one other was laughably shocking. That was a patent on a pinch roller as a method for feeding a sheet of material back and forth.

If having that patent was the final word, I would be a wealthy man today with every manufacturer of a business machine or printing press that feeds paper sending me royalties. Had I tried to enforce the patent, it obviously would have been thrown out of court.

In your case, I would think that you would have a strong argument that lots of things including coffins have been getting wrapped by lots of people before their patent and, as such, as a concept it was obvious and not an innovation. Australian law may be different though, so my suggestion is that you should spend the money for a professional legal opinion.

 

[Gino]

Perhaps it's the idea of wrapping them and not the particular technique, they are objecting to at this point. I don't see how, they can make you stop performing your daily business and conducting it in a different manner, if your normal business mode is hampered by someone's whim of a phony patent. They cannot prevent you from making a living.
There's always the debate of the chicken and the egg, but whoever puts it in writing first, has something to say about it....... and usually the last word, unless it's wrong. Here is your chance to prove hardship and malice of their patent.

 

[visual800]

I would also ignore them. I wouldnt waste time seeling counsel or seeking advice I would simply keep doing what your doing and ignore them

 

[CanuckSigns]

Don't hire a lawyer for this, like someone else said they are trying to bully you into submitting by using their lawyer. I would ignore it for as long as possible, if they persist I would simply write them back a letter saying you don't use their technique to wrap coffins, you use industry standard techniques that have been around for 20+ years and unless they have a patent on general vinyl application they can stop sending you letters or you will have to sue them for harassment.

 

[bob]

Trying to patent wrapping a coffin would seem to be much like trying to patent painting a car, re-facing a cabinet, or getting a boob job. Futile.

 

[GAC05]

Maybe you can countersue - see if you can patent putting people down into the ground in rectangular boxes with hinged lids once they have assumed room temperature.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[player]

String them along so they spend lawyer dollars, but make sure they don't get to court without you there or they may get a default judgement.

 

[MikePro]

there's also a company that owns the utility patent of applying graphics to the individual vertical faces of stairwell/escalators to create a singular image/graphic when viewed at a distance....
seriously? isn't that called tiling?

 

[SightLine]

there's also a company that owns the utility patent of applying graphics to the individual vertical faces of stairwell/escalators to create a singular image/graphic when viewed at a distance....
seriously? isn't that called tiling?

Lol - yeah we got a cease and desist letter from them years ago. We were doing graphics like that on stairs at a couple of shopping malls. It was one of the ad space options. If I remember right it was a company out of North Carolina that has a patent on that.