John Rizvi - Patent Professor

It is Professor John Risvey.

He is the patent professor.

He is an attorney.

He is an adjunct professor of patent

law

at Nova Southwestern Law School in Florida.

He's authored a couple of different books on patents, and he joins us once again on the Wake Up Call.

Does it not amaze you sometimes, Professor, the things that people will sue over patents?

It is, and I guess with all these years practicing 25-plus years, it shouldn't be surprising, but there's always a case that shocks me, even still, even to today.

Is this one of them that somebody was like, hey, my candy doesn't look like a pumpkin.

File a suit.

Yeah, this one did because the reality is, There's been other cases, but there's always some sort of concrete economic injury that the consumer can point to.

The ones that come to mind is the cases against Burger King and Taco Bell for showing their food much more plentiful in the advertisements.

I mean, the burgers look bigger.

It appears to be more meat.

As far as Taco Bell, the Mexican pizza and the crunch wraps, there's been lawsuits saying that they don't come to the consumer the way they're advertised.

And in those cases, the consumer can point to a concrete economic injury.

They thought they were getting more food than they actually ended up getting.

The cases were still dismissed for different purposes.

But in this case, Hershey's, during the holidays, they take their Reese's peanut butter cups and they make Reese's peanut butter pumpkins And the packaging shows cutouts for the eyes and mouth and you can kind of in the chocolate.

So you can kind of see the peanut butter through the chocolate on these cutouts.

But the actual product is just completely covered in chocolate and there's no eyes and mouth.

And that was the basis of the lawsuit that the two plaintiffs.

contended that they purchased this product expecting it to have cutouts for the eyes and mouth, and it didn't.

The case was dismissed because the judge did not find any concrete economic injury from the product not having that.

It is Professor John Risvey.

He is the patent professor.

He is an attorney.

He is an adjunct professor of patent

law

at Nova Southwestern Law School in Florida.

He's authored a couple of different books on patents, and he joins us once again on the Wake Up Call.

Does it not amaze you sometimes, Professor, the things that people will sue over patents?

It is, and I guess with all these years practicing 25-plus years, it shouldn't be surprising, but there's always a case that shocks me, even still, even to today.

Is this one of them that somebody was like, hey, my candy doesn't look like a pumpkin.

File a suit.

Yeah, this one did because the reality is, There's been other cases, but there's always some sort of concrete economic injury that the consumer can point to.

The ones that come to mind is the cases against Burger King and Taco Bell for showing their food much more plentiful in the advertisements.

I mean, the burgers look bigger.

It appears to be more meat.

As far as Taco Bell, the Mexican pizza and the crunch wraps, there's been lawsuits saying that they don't come to the consumer the way they're advertised.

And in those cases, the consumer can point to a concrete economic injury.

They thought they were getting more food than they actually ended up getting.

The cases were still dismissed for different purposes.

But in this case, Hershey's, during the holidays, they take their Reese's peanut butter cups and they make Reese's peanut butter pumpkins And the packaging shows cutouts for the eyes and mouth and you can kind of in the chocolate.

So you can kind of see the peanut butter through the chocolate on these cutouts.

But the actual product is just completely covered in chocolate and there's no eyes and mouth.

And that was the basis of the lawsuit that the two plaintiffs.

contended that they purchased this product expecting it to have cutouts for the eyes and mouth, and it didn't.

The case was dismissed because the judge did not find any concrete economic injury from the product not having that.