How does this not infringe on the patented product?

Asked by chelle21689 (7907

) April 19th, 2018

There’s a patent for this dog booster seat.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US6588365B2/en?q=seat&oq=dog+booster+seat

How are several different sellers able to sell this? I also see places like Walmart and many other pet shops sell several different brands of this type. I understand maybe the design of it may be patented but I can’t figure out what could be different than something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Booster-Genorth-Collapsible-Carrier-Portable/dp/B01MQGKW7R/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1524145425&sr=8-14&keywords=dog%20booster%20seat%20car

It’s highly unlikely they all got permission to sell. For example, a squatty potty product is patented and you only see one seller selling of ONE brand.

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4 Answers

They could all be paying a licensing fee.

An uninformed guess off the top of my head – maybe the patent holder isn’t interested in manufacturing, and would rather simply collect fees.

Call_Me_Jay (14027

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The patent you link is for a specific design of pet booster, they have a pretty complete description listed there. The patent is protection for that design. There are three listed, but let’s just look at the first as an example. (they’re all pretty similar)

1. A pet booster seat mountable on the seat of a vehicle, comprising:

a frame member with a height, an open top and defining an interior area, wherein at least two restraining belt openings are defined in said frame member;

The one you linked on Amazon is quite a bit different and doesn’t even appear to use the seat belt to attach.

So this patent wouldn’t apply at all.

You can’t really patent a “dog seat” today (for a lot of reasons) and claim all dog seats violate your patent. You have to show what makes your design unique and patent those aspects.

funkdaddy (17777

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