"A patent cannot be obtained upon a mere idea or suggestion. The patent is granted upon the new machine, manufacture, etc., as has been said, and not upon the idea or suggestion of the new machine. A complete description of the actual machine or other subject matter for which a patent is sought is required"

General Information Concerning Patents

"In order for an invention to be patentable it must be new as defined in the patent law, which provides that an invention cannot be patented if: “(a) the invention was known or used by others in this country, or patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, before the invention thereof by the applicant for patent,” or “(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country more than one year prior to the application for patent in the United States . . .”
If the invention has been described in a printed publication anywhere in the world, or if it was known or used by others in this country before the date that the applicant made his/her invention, a patent cannot be obtained. If the invention has been described in a printed publication anywhere, or has been in public use or on sale in this country more than one year before the date on which an application for patent is filed in this country, a patent cannot be obtained. In this connection it is immaterial when the invention was made, or whether the printed publication or public use was by the inventor himself/herself or by someone else. If the inventor describes the invention in a printed publication or uses the invention publicly, or places it on sale, he/she must apply for a patent before one year has gone by, otherwise any right to a patent will be lost. The inventor must file on the date of public use or disclosure, however, in order to preserve patent rights in many foreign countries.
Even if the subject matter sought to be patented is not exactly shown by the prior art, and involves one or more differences over the most nearly similar thing already known, a patent may still be refused if the differences would be obvious. The subject matter sought to be patented must be sufficiently different from what has been used or described before that it may be said to be nonobvious to a person having ordinary skill in the area of technology related to the invention. For example, the substitution of one color for another, or changes in size, are ordinarily not patentable."

Obviously, this is no substitute for a genuine lawyers advice. Good luck!

 

Dude that sucks... I wouldn't condone that on this forum.

Id let taz know what happened, also, you could take them to small claims court and they would have to travel you your city and fight there... just need proof it was your idea, you could print those pms

 

But still, what was the idea... pm me if you don't wanna bring public attention to it.

 

I know you may not want to hear this and i don't know exactly what your idea was but if you look at most of the Monte's on here they have been mod-ed where 1 person tried some thing or had the idea and more people did it after that and are still doing it like roof rails for a example.I am sorry that this happened to you .

 

anyone else digging throught the forsale section trying to come up with what it may be? lol

sorry to say but without proper proof and patent your kind of SOL

best of luck geting this resolved tho,

 

it was a custom trunk lid panel design that i made and sent the design to the person that makes them on here...he wanted too much to build it so i didnt buy it from him but then he went and took my design and built it and sold it to others without asking if it was ok to use it...tried letting it go but its ust really getting under my skin...i recently asked him how much it would cost for the panel design i came up with that he's selling and he's charging $200...what should i do?

 

I know this is not what you want to hear. But legally there's not much you can do. Unless it involves a design that you own the copyright to.

If I mention on the forum I want to paint a skull and crossbones on my hood, then somebody else does it, there's nothing I can do about it. That's one of the things about sharing ideas with people. Somebody is bound to copy your idea. Unless you own the copyright to it, it's public domain.

You may have been able to negotiate some kind of deal with him. But now that there's a thread discussing it, it kinda hurts your chances at getting what you want.

Sorry man. It's not what you wanted to hear. But it's the truth.

 

I have to agree with Taz. Also in this case, it's not like he stole an invention of some sort. As you said, the guy who you felt wronged you makes these trunk panels. In this case, he is selling a design you came up with.

Hypothetically, he may have already began making your design and when you decided it was too expensive, he was committed to it, had to finish and sold it to get back his lost money and time. Once he put it out there and others saw it, if he got a request for another one, what's he going to do at that point. Situations like that happen a lot to people who do repair work and custom fabrication work. If they already have time/money into something and someone changes their mind, the person doing the work wants to get some return on their investment.

Again, that's a hypothetical. Obviously we don't know the specifics.

Unfortunately, I don't think you have any legal grounds on this issue unless there is a copy right or patent on the design. As much as it hurts that your original concept is no longer yours, I think you will need to let this one go.

 

i wouldnt be so mad if he discounted me one cause i tried making it myself cause he's so expensive but i screwed it up completely...i mean $200 for a trunk lid panel that doesnt even light up? i just know it would really set my ride off and it took me a while to come up with the right design that i wanted

 

Man that sucks. Hope you get your issue fixed.

Ive had a great idea for my t top Monte. Not sure how to go about it yet and too scared to ask. I dont wanna see my idea used b4 my cars done. Not that its a trick anybody could do but Im sure once I do my Monte Ill see it on other Monte's. As long as I keep it to myself and get it done by myself Im sure I wont be seeing my idea out there b4 its time.