Company Sued, Loses For Not Using Patented Tech

bdcrazy writes "A man was recently awarded $1.5M in a jury trial after his hand was injured by a Ryobi table saw. The saw did not include the patented 'Saw Stop' technology that the plaintiff argued would have prevented all the problems." 60 similar cases have now been filed nationwide. TechDirt makes the argument that this jury decision is completely crazy: "If the government is going to require companies to use a patented technology, it seems that the only reasonable solution is to remove the patent on it and allow competition in the market place." If the decision stands, not only will the price of table saws go way up, but other hungry patent-holders will probably get a gleam in their eye.

Comments

Re:If it isn't required by law, it isn't required

[Jeng]

I have no doubts this will be overturned on appeal.

Not just because Ryobi has lots of money to toss at this, but because all of their competitors are going to be afraid of similar lawsuits.

Re:Airbag lawsuits? Read the article...

[WinterSolstice]

Exactly.

Once again, people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own free-market actions.
The reason we have the government we deserve is because we're unwilling to take responsibility for our own actions.

If this had been a case where he was injured because the saw turned itself on due to a bad switch, or some other example of extremely bad design it would be different. This is a case where he bought a cheap saw KNOWING it was a cheap saw.