SegwayChat - North Carolina man caught in global patent dispute with Segway

It's about time that Segway protected their intellectual property!

Quote:

"Jacobs said he was told that the manufacturers he buys from had developed their own technology."

Yeah, and I'm SURE that no Chinese company would EVER misrepresent the patent situation, or try to sell products containing the intellectual property of some other company. /sarcasm_off/

Quote:

Two of the alleged patent violations refer to transporter steering controls, two others to cosmetic and ornamental details of design. The complaint also alleges copyright infringement on Segway’s owner and reference manuals.
...
The Laurel Hill man contends that the issue is not pirated technology, but competition.

He seemingly does not understand patent law in the U.S. LeanSteer is a "non-obvious" combination of concepts, components, and software. Subsequent to that patent, if you have a lean-steer function, then you have to be using Segway IP.

The fact that a patented feature might be implemented somewhat differently by another manufacture does not diminish the intellectual property rights. Example: intermittent windshield wipers. There are lots of ways to implement this feature in hardware and software, but all of them go back to the original intermittent concept, and inventor Bob Kearns.

Good luck, Segway, in kicking their patent-violating butts!