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Consumer Rights Involving Defective Products

Defects may occur in any products made by manufacturers or producers. These may vary from simple flaw in constructing a chair to error in creating an electronic appliance that made it explode after some time of usage.

Product defects may be categorized depending on what phase of manufacturing or handling an item has acquired such deficiency.

• Design defects – occur even before a product has been created or in the planning stage. Usually, this type of defects arises due the manufacturer’s objective to develop a product, which is more appealing to the eyes of the consumers so that they will more likely buy the product. Consequently, some safety standards are being disregarded in the design.

• Manufacturing defects – occur in the actual stages of product assembly or production. Whether a product design is being done manually or machine aided, problems and mistakes cannot be completely avoided.

This is the reason why product testing is always necessary for manufacturing companies to ensure that all their items passed under a strict safety standards. Failure to implement such may result to more troubles if the government has issued a recall order.

• Marketing defects – occur in the stage of selling or distributing the products. Even though a particular item has been proven free of any manufacturing defects, improper delivery or handling may damage the products. This specific mistake is under the responsibility of the distributor or the seller of the goods.

The product liability laws guarantee protection for the consumers who have been injured or died from an accident resulting in the utilization of a reasonably dangerous product and allows to file their lawsuits against the company, wholesalers or retailers that manufactured or distributed it, depending on the type of defects seen on the product.

Since the actual filing of a product liability claim involves many complicated matters, it is always advisable to hire the assistance of a qualified lawyer who has the expertise in handling this particular type of case.  If the defect appears to be in an entire line of a product, a California defective product attorney may be able to file a class action suit against the manufacture to allow multiple victims to be eligible to receive compensation for injuries and reimbursement for repairs and/or replacements.

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Protecting Intellectual Property in California

Here are a few ways in which San Francisco intellectual property lawyers can protect you.

Patent

Patents protect ideas (or processes or products). It takes a long time to procure one and is an expensive business. However, this works to protect the owner of the patent from future claims of ownership of the same idea.

Patents are valid for a limited period, after which the idea becomes free for others to use. They are also awarded for a certain geographic area – and in today’s global environment, a really BIG idea may need to be protected worldwide.

Copyright

Acquiring a copyright is the way to protect written works such as books, software, or even music. However, a copyright only protects the intellectual property from being duplicated, as in the case of software products. On the other hand, a person can take “inspiration” from an idea belonging to someone else, tweak it a bit, and get away with it, scot free. Don’t we see that happening all the time?

Trademark


A trademark protects a property that is used to make a company or product marketable – for example a brand name or logo. In case of the use of generic sounding names, trademarks protect the visual rendition but not the name itself.

Other Examples:


• Prevention of the theft of trade secrets, although this can be quite difficult to achieve

• Non disclosure agreements that prevent employees or vendors from divulging confidential or sensitive information to others

It must be noted that protection of intellectual property rights is a specialized legal science by itself, and you will need to engage the services of an IP lawyer to take care of your interests. Be sure not to overlook them.

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