It actually would backfire on them, since they cut into another companies sales volume with a patent claim that is obviously not enforcable since they themselves created the prior art and therefore know that the patent has no grounds to stand upon. In patent law there is a thing called bad faith patent assertion…
The video from 2018 shows the board Evolves tries to patent in Dez 2020 with a priority from Nov 2019… Obviously the board shown in the patent existed more than 12 month before filing the patent priority. So even if 12 month grace period would be granted, the patent would still be invalid due to lack of novality. On top of that, there were plenty of boards with moulded decks driving around way before that time…
I don’t know about that. I’ve owned an Exway, an Evolve, a Trampa, two of my own builds, and now a LaCroix Nazare’. Dollar for dollar the Evolve held its own with any of them. It didn’t have the speed or range of some of my other boards but it didn’t cost as much either. I put a good 2500 miles on it with AT wheels before the battery faded. Never had a disconnect or any other kind of sudden stop problem. I would recommend one to someone looking for a production board in that price range.
No one knows the intention of the patent yet. Most likely it is just intended for advertising hype. Things are going to be difficult for these companies that have relied on sales growth. Growth is the way to get wealthy with a startup. Unfortunately or fortunately, there are only so many people that want to ride a skateboard 25 mph.
I’m not familiar enough with the legal properties of a patent like this to comment on it’s legal viability. From an ethical perspective, though, I feel that this patent tries to claim ownership of ideas and concepts that predate Evolve. It seems like a legal maneuver shut down competitors, rather than an effort to protect IP that Evolve invested in and developed on their own.
In the past, we’ve seen some small vendors in the DIY esk8 world threaten others, demanding that parts or products are no longer sold due to a pending patent. But the damage was relatively small because the legal costs would exceed the value of the either business!
Now, with Evolve doing it, my concern is that there will be some actual stifling of innovation. They (presumably) have enough resources to press smaller businesses.
What could we do, as a community, to stop this kind of cutthroat behavior? Could we start a petition, perhaps draft an open letter and have all the DIY vendors sign it, and make it public?
