Stable Genius
Regular Member
- Dec 9, 2019
- 224
- 129
Recently I came across a novelty product variety sold on AE and was interested in dropshipping it. I checked Amazon and there are 2 brands selling this product and a few unbranded sellers. Both of the 2 brands claim to be the original and that product is made in the USA and one Amazon listing claims they have patented this. I checked both of their websites and nothing on the websites mentions anything about patents.
From my understand of patents and this situation is that company cannot patent the item itself because it is a common household item. I also do not think they would be able to patent the process of changing this household item into novelty item with the addition of decorative things that do not change the usage of the item or improve it in any way. Let's say common household item would be coffee mug and decorative patent examples would be - printing on coffee mugs & irregular shape of coffee mug. For the first I don't think someone can own patent on just printing on coffee mugs, they can own a patent on machine that prints on coffee mugs and the processes it applies to get the job done but not on the general process of printing graphics on coffee mugs. There could be different ways to achieve the same thing and use different machines / methods to get general process done. The other example could be irregular shaped coffee mugs, I don't think someone can patent the right to make heart shaped coffee mugs as an example.
I would love to hear feedback from someone who is more familiar to share their views on this with me. I was interested in dropshipping this item from AE and was wondering if there could any potential problems.
From my understand of patents and this situation is that company cannot patent the item itself because it is a common household item. I also do not think they would be able to patent the process of changing this household item into novelty item with the addition of decorative things that do not change the usage of the item or improve it in any way. Let's say common household item would be coffee mug and decorative patent examples would be - printing on coffee mugs & irregular shape of coffee mug. For the first I don't think someone can own patent on just printing on coffee mugs, they can own a patent on machine that prints on coffee mugs and the processes it applies to get the job done but not on the general process of printing graphics on coffee mugs. There could be different ways to achieve the same thing and use different machines / methods to get general process done. The other example could be irregular shaped coffee mugs, I don't think someone can patent the right to make heart shaped coffee mugs as an example.
I would love to hear feedback from someone who is more familiar to share their views on this with me. I was interested in dropshipping this item from AE and was wondering if there could any potential problems.