Dear Mr. Hynum,
Bite me!!! A patent on the use of your eyes and brain with a machine the inspector owns, and has training provided by acknowledeged accredditation providers? Get a really good patent attorney, pay an extremely high retainer fee then drop the case. You’re gonna need the attorney to respond to the harrassment lawsuits and class action fraud suit if your firm proceeds with this.
I’m with ya on the harrasment and probable worthlessnes of the patents, but the patents are there nonetheless.
I hope that someone with the legal-know how (and $$) to challenge a patent would do so in this case. There’s another thread where another inspector got the same letter.
I’ll bet o Dan boy can probably do more than just sniff!!
I got another letter from them. I still do not understand why he is still insisting on me paying for a license when I only advertise infrared for another NACHI inspector. Do they own the patent on infrared advertising too?
Damn, they have some balls. :twisted:
I wonder if they have approached inspectors that actually use infrared?
Hi to all,
here’s the problem, they have filed and been given patent protection, period. that is changeable, but if they go after an individual inspector, it is an uneven fight, the cost of defending against their suit is to high, and they know it!!
Here’s is my suggestion, iNACHI & its members together with our business partners need to start a legal defense fund to take them on over this, it’s not a hard case to win given that their patents are newer than the generally accepted uses of the technology, but that is what it will take to defend ourselves, safety is in numbers.
Regards
Gerry
I do not offer IR services… but I can tell you this guy Rick HO-HUM keeps spamming the shat out of me. I get tons of his emails… keep opting out and keep getting them.
Anyone else getting bombed with their crap?
Brian, it is clear that they are firing warning shots at any and all inspectors using IR technologies.
Regards
Gerry
Then find other inspectors who have the same problem in states that allow fines to be applied after you get spam and have opted out. There’s enough inspectors to make all those $500 fines hurt.
the bold is what is really scary! Your average inspector does not have the time nor $$ to defend or reverse the patent. I like your suggestion.
I would also think FLIR, Fluke and other camera manfacturers would be interested as well as education providers.
I would also be interested in opinions from Infraspection Institute and Snell and other training providers.
I agree they their plan is to divide and conquer and that we need to approach this seriously as a group to properly fight it. As said, while we may not agree with the legitimacy of this, they do hold US patents that may or may not apply. Based on their behavior, they are not going to play fair. They have spent money and time on this scheme to get to this point, it seems reasonable that they will spend more on the chance they can win and validate these ridiculously vague and obvious application patents - ie sue a few individual inspectors.
I would like to see iNACHI, Nick, perhaps John McKenna take the lead here and organize us to fight this. I am more than willing to assist in any way I can, but we need some organized leadership in place.
I would guess that the first step is to think about hiring a professional prior art researcher with a background in patent law.
I would be willing to contribute to a legal fund to put this in place.
Kevin
This should save you guy’s a lot of legal expenses.
info:
form to file:
Screw them and their damn patents. How can anyone legally own a patent to perform IR inspections in a home and then charge a fee when an HI wants to perform IR inspections also? Tell them to go to hell.
James,
I was just browsing your website and noticed that you do “Thermal Camera Imagining”. Is this when you imagine that you are doing Thermal Camera Imaging?
That is what basically what I do. Since I have no camera or training, all that I can do is imagine. Thanks for telling me about thou. I have got it corrected now and added “for commercial buildings”. It appears that Home Safe does not have a patent on commercial thermal imaging. That is the only calls that ever got any jobs from anyway. But I just give away the leads to Aram anyway and he does with as he wishes. In return he sends me some mold testing leads that he gets from his site. It works out really well that way.
David,
The fact is, they do hold a patent for some process regarding IR and home inspections.
Should the patent have been granted - probably not.
But it was, and if they take you to court for infringment, you loose, regardless of the outcome of the suit.
Interesting to note that they list how many “claims” that have been upheld. This may be how many they’ve sued and won.
I don’t think an individual inspector wants to take this on by themselves. An association of group may want to, though.
I was considering buying a IR camera but have been scared out of it.
Had enough saved up at the end of November,however this thread has been convincing me to not buy from Flir.
I wonder how much Flir has lost due to this thread $$$.
I wonder how much money my business would have made had the above company not intimidated me.
Will some one help me and my business before I go under.?
Please note the date of this thread for future reference.
I would love to see this firm shut me off from performing IR inspections on the homes I inspect.
Bring it on…
Ditto for me Bob.
And date noted.
