Existing and All New Members Are Covered Under Association License
PR Newswire
BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 5, 2013
BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – InterNACHI, the largest and fastest-growing home inspection association in the United States, has recently reached an agreement with HomeSafe Inspection, Inc. to provide a group patent license exclusively for its entire membership. The license will go into effect immediately.
“After a thorough review of the HomeSafe patents by our legal team, we came to the conclusion that the HomeSafe patents are in fact valid,” said Nick Gromicko, president of InterNACHI. “We can find no evidence of prior art that has not been reviewed by the patent office and all six patents are approved and in good standing with the USPTO. Therefore, we reached out in good faith to HomeSafe and negotiated on behalf of our membership and found that HomeSafe was more than willing to develop a reasonable license package that would protect InterNACHI members. We are pleased that we have structured an agreement that will immediately protect our members.”
According to Kevin J. Seddon, president of HomeSafe Inspection, Inc., the agreement will grant every InterNACHI member, as well as anyone that joins InterNACHI, the right to utilize HomeSafe’s patented procedures during the course of a building inspection.
“As long as the individual inspector joins and remains a member of InterNACHI, he or she will be protected under the license from prior infringement of the patents, as well as from future use of the patented procedures,” said Seddon. “We have always maintained that we developed our patents, our training and our certification internally many years ago, and our intent was and is for every inspector to use our procedures appropriately and responsibly. We believe that teaming with InterNACHI and offering this license for its members will mainstream the use of infrared technology in our industry,” Seddon continued. “InterNACHI has proven its business acumen by recognizing our patents and reaching out to protect its members. And, InterNACHI’s dedication to providing quality educational opportunities and communication forums for its membership further indicates that informing its members about proper inspection procedures and usage of all technology is a top priority.”
InterNACHI members that use infrared may continue to use the technology and are not required to fill out any documentation. Although, it is encouraged that inspectors receive proper training and utilize proper infrared technology when performing inspections.
New InterNACHI members wishing to be included under the license are asked only to fill out their InterNACHI membership application and inform InterNACHI that they are currently using or plan to utilize infrared technology during the course of a building inspection. There are no other requirements.
To become an InterNACHI member and be protected under their patent license, go to: http://www.nachi.org/homesafe-application.htm
For further information on how to join InterNACHI and also be covered under their infrared patent license you may also call 303.502.6214 or 662.236.1232.
For more information on HomeSafe’s Patents, go online to: www.homesafeinspection.com/home-inspection-category/patent-protected-technologies-and-methodologies
Contact: Lisa Endza
Tel. 303.502.6214
E-mail. lisa@internachi.org
SOURCE HomeSafe Inspection, Inc.
Now Nick has made himself the single greatest threat to the free practice of thermal imaging by home inspection professionals. I would be ashamed to support such a reprehensible act.
For some reason, non-members can’t seem to get their heads around the concept that InterNACHI’s membership benefits are are for members… not the entire industry.
I think that Mr. Evans is referring to how you created a perception of a benefit by actually harming the industry.
By embracing a patent troll and offering him recognition and credibility with which he can harm others … including NACHI members who later decide to leave the association … you have forfeited any position you may have had as an industry leader.
Helping a patent troll to piss in everyone else’s glass of Kool-Aid with the exception of yours is hardly something to brag or issue a press release about, IMO.
Well played Nick…I guess some people just want their cake and eat it too. I would rather you NOT spend MY dues on PROTECTING other organizations.
I am sure Home Safe is willing to listen to other organizations of they want to play ball. I guess when you are performing thermal infrared inspections that infringe on another patent right, you will consider maybe not leaving NACHI.
Do I like it? Nope, but I see your point of view and playing the hand your dealt with, you did a great job in my opinion.
You cannot please them all…and never will.
Faced with situation you were faced with, you protected the member, the association and the membership. As far as I am concerned that is your only obligation.
Besides, thermal infrared is an ancillary service and not part of a traditional home inspection, so thanks for stepping up and taking care of this “gimmick” so that some of us can use it.
There might be a little disagreement as to the level of that threat.
I’m not thrilled with this for the very reasons Bushart mentioned. It sets an uncomfortable precedent and the question has to be asked, will NACHI now be suing or helping Homesafe sue non-members with the same baseless suits they have thrown around for years?
I think the missing point here is that Nick paid money out of his pocket to do this in the interest of his membership. If someone decides to leave that membership and the “shield”, then that is their choice. It would be like someone getting mad at AAA when their car broke down after discontinuing their AAA coverage.
I doubt Nick just tossed the money out there without thinking it through. I am very sure he had this looked over by his attorneys and probably had legal advice to go this direction. What would have been worse is if he fought it in the courts and lost. Then the sky would have been the limit on the cost to each and every person doing this sort of work. Think about this for a second…FLIR, Fluke and Testo all make good money from home inspectors. They also get calls from customers and probably Home Safe letters. They all have very deep pockets, especially Fluke. There is a reason they didn’t fight it either. At the end of the day, it would of made a lot of sense for one of them to do what Nick did and protect all potential customers of their product. That would have been one heck of a selling point…actually now that I say that, it would have been a good idea for my company to do it. Nick beat us all to the punch as far as I am concerned.
Jason Kaylor
President
AC Tool Supply
Net Zero Tools
877-207-1244 jason@netzerotools.com