Hi James,
Firstly this is a theoretical discussion, and I have no interest in
producing my own Argentium silver, of any variety. There may be
people that like the discontinued alloy for whatever reason, and
still want to use if for personal “non-commercial” use.
Your points are very interesting James. However I think civil suits
are basically the same and focus on loss of income (damages)?
If I was making something for personal use, with an alloy that’s no
longer in production, there’s no loss of income, so there’s no case.
If I were to make the alloy for resale, then there’s a case, because
there’s a “potential” loss of income. Meaning that there’s a market
that the original IP holder didn’t think viable, but they have a
right to.
If it were my patent, naturally, I would want people to buy my
product. However I could only expect to be covered by the current
laws. A civil suit is based on loss of income (damages), if there’s
no income loss there’s really no case.
It’s not about what I would want, but what I can legally enforce.
The other side of the coin too, is that if I stop making an alloy
and a company with more money that I have decides to infringe my IP,
then I will be tied up for years in court, until I run out of funds.
This can also happen with any patent.
It’s very true that large corporations “sit” on a lot of valuable
inventions, and competative inventions, however they’re only covered
commercially. If someone wants to make something for themselves with
no view for profit there’s not really much a patent owner can do.
Regards Charles A.