A federal trial is scheduled next week involving major makers of scientific equipment, the University of Wisconsin and an entrepreneur, all over who can profit from a device most people know from high school chemistry.
If you can't be bothered to sell your own products for so long you can't be surprised when something like this happens. I would have told them to either stop selling my product when they came out with there own version or to stop selling theirs. They let this market erosion happen for how long before they complained that it "wasn't fair".
The problem with patents is some people think that it's an excuse to stop marketing and just sit back and milk the cash cow. Rather than switch distributors and start marketing against these new knock-off they are crying to a judge with only an expired patent for their defense.
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"The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet." -William Gibson