Props for a design that is in a lawsuit.

Just wondering if Core should be giving props to NEST while they are currently being sued for allegedly infringing upon 7 of honeywells patents…

I see so many designs out there that are showcased as wins by the design firms or design communities, only to discover later after doing research or talking with the client to hear how the project was a complete failure and that the client will never work that particular design firm again. At times i find that allot of Design Firms use smoke and mirrors to promote their work.

Design firms are not capable of undertaking a true due diligence. That is the responsibility of a law firm. They and they alone can determine if the client has freedom to operate.

I’m not sure about the editorial responsibilities of the blog, but I suspect the Nest has more upside then some of the other shooting star one hit wonders that may grace the front page. For one, they’re former Apple guys and they’ve got Apple’s muscle behind them

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/chip-lutton/6/521/957

Where else would you expect to get to have your cake and eat it to.

With him on the team you would think there wouldn’t be an issue, unless he felt that in his expertise they where not infringing on any patents.

thanks for your thoughts chevisw – we do our judging for the core77 design awards months before the announcements and the criteria for judging is determined by our jurors. check out the live announcements to hear more about their decision here: Consumer Products Announcement 2012, Core77 Design Awards - YouTube

In other thoughts, we’ll be doing a whole series about design patents in the coming weeks so stay tuned to the homepage!

Lest anyone be left out in the cold on this topic… Ref. > Honeywell vs Nest: When The Establishment Sues Silicon Valley – TechCrunch

Surely one of the issues that we will bump into time and time again as the world gets ever smaller:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/47322970[/vimeo]

The work product aside, it’s a simple issue - any contract between the design firm and the client stipulates that IP, patent and trademark searches are the responsibility of the client and that the design firm is not held liable for infringement - or - the approved tasks for the design firm includes coordination of searches via a partner law firm of client’s choice with findings to be approved by the client as a requisite for continued work.

Any manufacturer / marketer that gets mad at a design firm because THEY didn’t think to do legal due diligence isn’t the fault of the design firm - but the design firm in that case might deserve not to be invited back for not having initiated discussion of the topic in the contract and/or otherwise.

We had a brand development client in 2008 who ignored the topic, knew of the contract details, nodded OK to emails and discussions of required clearances and then still got miffed later when it came out that they hadn’t initiated any of the clearance searches after the trademark application was challenged. Makes you just shake your head and wonder.