BERLIN/NEW YORK – Pleasure product manufacturer WOW Tech Group released a statement on Tuesday about the company’s “patents and ongoing efforts to protect them” in response to an “influx of confusion and questions they have received in response to other industry news.”
WOW Tech said the goal of the statement is “to keep retailers and industry members informed in order to protect each other from legal and financial repercussions.” In essence, the statement is a warning to retailers and distributors that offering a WOW Tech competitor’s product that is alleged to have infringed on a WOW Tech patent may expose those retailers and distributors to liability, as well.
“WOW Tech created the market for Pleasure Air Technology stimulation devices with innovative technology that is covered by a worldwide portfolio of patents,” the statement begins. “We are aware that some competitors from time to time tout having one or more patents for technology they use in some of their products. We urge retailers and distributors to recognize this does not mean the competitor is not infringing WOW Tech patents.”
WOW Tech noted in its statement that patents “by their nature have different scopes but can also overlap in certain ways, making it possible for a product covered by one patent to also infringe another patent.”
“Indeed, when the Patent Office issues a new patent, it does not consider whether or not existing commercial products covered by that patent also infringe other patents,” WOW Tech said in its statement. “This means the issuance of a new patent is not any kind of guarantee that a company’s product does not infringe another patent.”
WOW Tech emphasized that they “take patent infringement seriously” and are “committed to holding patent infringers responsible for violating our valuable intellectual property rights.”
“Anyone who makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, or imports products that infringe one or more of WOW Tech’s patents could be held liable for patent infringement, regardless of whether those infringing products are also covered by other patents,” WOW Tech said. “Retailers and distributors who are told that a product does not infringe one company’s patents may therefore be better served by seeking written assurance and maybe even indemnification from the company claiming innocence. The fact that an accused infringer has its own separate patent does not mean that accused infringer (or its retailers or distributors) cannot be found liable for infringing another company’s patents.”
Additional information about WOW Tech’s patents and patented products is available on the WOW Tech website.
