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ARTICLE · 06 JULY 2020

The One Secret Every Engineer Needs To Know About Patents

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
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This is a true story. A highly innovative Israeli component manufacturer in the mobility space had a big problem.

IsraelIntellectual Property
Gerson Panitch
Gerson Panitch
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This is a true story. A highly innovative Israeli component manufacturer in the mobility space had a big problem. It employed some of the smartest minds in its industry who developed solutions that were incorporated into OEM products worldwide. By international standards, the Israeli company was small, but it punched far above its weight, so much so, that the last eight generations of OEM products incorporated the Israeli company's innovations.

So why was this such a big problem?  None of the large OEMs purchased the Israeli company's products. Instead, year after year, the OEMs copied the Israeli company's innovations. The Israeli company thought its products were well protected with over 15 U.S. patents and many more patents worldwide. But its patents could not stop the copying.

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