Sports and Games: Patents, Trademarks, and IP Related Issues for Sporting Goods

10/05/22 • 28 min

J.D. and Matt brought on a Bold Patents client, Terry Vance, owner of Blitz Lures and inventor of the "Live Foot" independent sonar transducer which solves the problem of not being able to see fish or look the way you want because all other transducers are dependent on the direction/facing of the trolling motor.
Terry walked the audience through his journey to get his patent and was happy to explain that he's invested in his patent portfolio by filing a child/continuation patent that is still pending. PLUS he's found an infringer and has begun enforcing his patent against them and they are using the pending application as leverage to cover a broader invention that more closely aligns to the infringers patent!
The three of us then critiqued a basketball ball net/retrieval system that was pitched on Shark Tank. The "Grind" product helps basketball players work on their shot by catching missed/made shots and returning the ball to the player instead of the player having to go get the rebound and waste time. JD briefly discussed that a utility patent is what he'd recommend going for, but it didn't see like Grind or any inventor had filed for the protection. Matt Kulseth couldn't find a trademark filing either - so the product looked good, but his IP was shallow or empty, not a solid footing to be on.

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Everything discussed on this podcast is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice.

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Previous Episode

Patent Licensing w/Special Guest Chad Hilyard of Celerity IP

J.D. and Matt had a great live with special guest Chad Hillyard of Celerity IP and learned a lot about the telecom world and how many larger companies spend a lot of resources into getting standard essential patents that shape the future of wireless communication. The big upside for having a standard essential patent is that EVERY carrier and handset manufacturer has to pay the inventor a royalty! We also did a Bold Bite on a weather-related invention where the founder invented a novel cover from weather, but was only able to lock in a design patent instead of a utility patent on it. Therefore, he's vulnerable to other manufacturer designing around his specific design.

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Next Episode

Baseball Inventions - Patents and Trademarks with J.D. Houvener

J.D. and Matt batted around some awesome conversations about baseball and intellectual property! We looked at three areas of baseball. The first was the baseball we see on TV and commented on the advertisements, the slogans, the logos, and all of the trademark and trade dress that shoes up on-screen. J.D. pointed out the technology of computer graphics and overlays including the batter-box, and some images that are shown on the mound (only on TV - and are not actually there). Second, J.D. and Matt commented on a post-game interview and how prominently a bottle of gatorade was sitting right there next to the coach. Taking it one step further, we critiqued that even though the bottle couldn't be seen (the "Gatorade" word wasn't visible) the orange cap was, and Matt explained that Gatorade has likely owned any beverage with a distinctive orange cap. Lastly, the two of us critiqued the Rich Eisen show and the massive amounts of logos, hats, trophies, books, and memorabilia, posters, and images of famous athletes that show up on-screen. We also answered a few live questions and 3 pre-loaded questions from Avvo.com.

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