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Being sued by Electronics consultancy

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Black Phoenix:

--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 05, 2023, 06:07:45 pm ---I mean, how trash an invention can someone put out there, and then sue someone for them reverse engineering it (because they sent it to me to trial out) and sending the schem to your mate to have a laugh about?

--- End quote ---

How important do you think you are that someone (or a company) will lose time (that is money) getting a case against you?

I think you need a reality check (and yes I checked the username...).

nali:

--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 05, 2023, 06:07:45 pm ---Hi,
I was testing a supposedly superb and totally original, isolated  single stage  PFC'd SMPS of 150W.
(i never had any BOM or schem for it, apart from the one i reverse engineered from the PCB  itself)

--- End quote ---

I'm curious as to what you're being sued for exactly. Is it that PSU you hadn't paid for and managed to blow up, now they want you to pay for it?

ebastler:

--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 05, 2023, 06:07:45 pm ---[...] and then sue someone for them reverse engineering it (because they sent it to me to trial out) and sending the schem to your mate to have a laugh about?

--- End quote ---

Could you please state clearly what they are sueing (or threatening to sue) you for? I can't see how you would get sued for "reverse engineering" anything as long as you do it in private and don't share the results. I can certainly see how you could get sued for breach of a non-disclosure agreement, if the other party has provided you with their schematics circuit under such NDA and you then share that and/or your analysis with someone else.

If this is about a breach of NDA, what you would usually have to prove is that you have known about the "confidential" circuit before, or that you have learned about it from an independent, non-confidential source after receiving the "confidential" disclosure. All reasonable NDAs have provisions that make received information non-confidential under these circumstances.

Even if you can show that, you may still have a problem if you disclosed to your mate the name of the company you are working with, their intent to use this design, the purpose/product they want to use it for, and similar proprietary information which may fall under the scope of the NDA.

tom66:
I call ****.  The UK is not like the US where it's super easy to sue someone and force them to settle in fear of crippling legal fees.  In the UK, both sides pay for their respective fees, and judges will only award legal fees in the case of malice on the other party.  So we don't have that many lawsuits which are on no reasonable basis at all, and "SLAPP" style lawsuits are uncommon. 

jpanhalt:

--- Quote from: tom66 on April 06, 2023, 09:38:39 am ---I call ****.  The UK is not like the US where it's super easy to sue someone and force them to settle in fear of crippling legal fees.  In the UK, both sides pay for their respective fees, and judges will only award legal fees in the case of malice on the other party.  So we don't have that many lawsuits which are on no reasonable basis at all, and "SLAPP" style lawsuits are uncommon.

--- End quote ---

FYI
In the "American system" both sides pay their own legal fees.* That is starkly different from other countries where the loser is generally liable. It is difficult to get fees awarded in the US, unless there is an agreement to the contrary.  The problem with such agreements is that our courts interpret them reciprocally (may vary by states), and generally, the award goes to the side with the greatest monetary damages.**  However, one can sue for damages just as you can sue a ham sandwich, but that's an uphill battle.

*Such fees are generally not tax deductible.  Take a typical tort case where the plaintiff wins $1,000,000.  That (with certain exceptions) is counted as income to the plaintiff.  The plaintiff pays income tax first (say 49% state and Federal) and pays their attorney based on the full amount (say 40%).  That leaves the plaintiff with $110,000.  Plaintiff attorneys ("contingency fee attorneys") have argued that such "double taxation" is unfair.  Their proposed solution is to make fees tax deductible, not to make their contingency fee based on net after taxes -- no surprise there.

**Of note, Gwyneth Paltrow (actress) counter sued for $1 and attorney fees.  She won the $1 (greatest monetary damages) and got attorney fees by effectively proving the plaintiff's case was baseless.  Whether she will be able to collect is another question.

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