Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Import items for use in small business?

There are several points I need to make in response to this complicated question.

First, whoever currently owns the intellectual property rights (patent, trademark, etc.) in the items you wish to modify will continue to own those rights in your modified product. The modifications will be yours, but you will still have to deal with the owner of the existing rights and you may not be able to do anything with your ideas if the current owner is unwilling to cooperate with you.

Second, copying a patented or trademarked item (even if you call it "designing from scratch," where the goal is to replicate an existing item it's still copying) is a violation of the intellectual property rights of the current owner and could subject you to rather serious civil liability. You need to find out the exact terms of the patent, copyright etc. and make sure your design does not infringe.

You will probably need to have a qualified attorney work on these investigations for you. I'm not an expert myself, but I know some people I could put you in touch with.

As to the logistics of importing on your own, I will defer to the expertise of someone with more knowledge than I have.

Edward Hoffman

Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

11620 Wilshire Boulevard, #340

Re: Import items for use in small business?

Mr Hoffman is correct in all that he said. Let me just add that you should not listen to non-attorneys in these type of matters. This is almost surely why you are getting conflicting information. In addition, it it would be difficult, if not impossible, for an attorney to answer your question directly without knowing more of the facts of your case. You should meet with a competent attorney and discuss the exact product you wish to create or modify and the mechanism you intend to use for importation and/or sales.

Timothy J. Walton

Internet Attorney

1896 San Ramon Avenue

Re: Import items

As to which would be easier, that is really a business question rather than a legal one. I imagine that importing would be easier because you can get started with less money invested up front. Rather than importing and modifying you might try to get licensed as the exclusive US distributor. Just make sure you get exclusive and get it for a long time period or at least options to renew. You dont want to spend your time and money developing a market and they have the product pulled from you. Many foreign companies would welcome such an arrangement, particularly if they currently have no market here. They also will often perform the modifications you need to sell here.

Ken Koury

Kenneth P. Koury, Esq.

5807 Topanga Cyn Blvd., Suite G-201