Ethical in Deep Financial DooDoo, Will Keymaker Ben Lose Ability to Use His Tool

[bargainbloodhound]

[quote author=Anita link=topic=2443.msg11048#msg11048 date=1142643112]
Xppman,
Do you have any extra socks you could loan to Ben so he can use his tool? 
[/quote]

Did you know they don't make socks smilies???  Go ahead, google 'socks smilies'.  There aren't any.  We've been looking for some for months!

End of my hijack 

[xppman]

Anita Says:

Xppman,
Do you have any extra socks you could loan to Ben so he can use his tool?

 
No Anita...
But I have an "extender tool"  for members. 

But I doubt he can afford the batteries for IT now. 

BBH

My "socks" smile all the time since I started using all the DRUGS
that are offered in all those Spam e mails I get.  :blinkie:

The WARNINGS on the label say "If IT smiles for over four hours to call a doctor".

I say: The hell with the doctor just send me three or four nurses.

[bargainbloodhound]

[bargainbloodhound]

Lastly, whereas we've no quarrel with ASage, they are in violation of the
patent on the extender tool. No action has been taken, since we do feel that
competition is healthy, however, on the same note, it's sorta crummy when
someone turns an idea into an actual patentable process and hardware, only
to have another copy it.

Back on the PeSA board, the CEO of another auction management service questions the above statement that was made by Ethical's CEO.

The other CEO pointed out a few holes in that statement: 1. the patent office is unlikely to issue a patent for changing the duration of a listing 2. the current time from patent filing to obtaining a patent is running 4 1/2-5 years, and 3. it is highly unlikely that after going through the entire patent process that someone would be willing to give it away for free (Ethical's statement that no action was planned against Auction Sage over the alleged patent violation because "competition is healthy").  Finally, the other CEO asks Ethical's CEO "What is the patent number and when was is published?".  Here is the response from Ethical's CEO:

scott_honestycomfounder

Hiya xxxxx,

You know MUCH MUCH more about patents than I do from what I recall. At
Ethical, Mike is the gent who handles our patent attorney. I initially had
the words patent pending, and then pending patent, and removed them both
from the above post. Due to competitive reasons, I cannot divulge the actual
status of where in the process the tools stand.

I will say this. Some of the current Ethical tools are not protectable.
Others are, and according to what I know (second hand) some have much
stronger cases than others. And, as we all know, patents can be limited even
after they've been granted. It all gets down to court.

Prior to anything going up on the Ethical whiteboard, Mikey would contact
our patent attorney's firm, and get an opinion. From there paperwork would
be filed if they felt this was appropriate. Some was not, so it wasn't
filed, some was never built for that reason alone.

I do know that with Extender, we were given a green light and high
confidence level to proceed to the point where signatures added to, I
believe, was a provisional patent application, and the process was started
and passed through certain stages. Where exactly it stands at this moment is
a question only Mike could answer with any credibility, although I recall
there were numbers assigned to what we do have.

The same goes for many of the other items of technology that were never
built or released,including a few dozen that were totally scrapped when
various PESA users visited us and showed made point that showed us flaws in
our thinking and our attorneys said the technology was protectable.

Our focus was to build tools that sellers could use in a benefical manner
and we spend more time on concepts and ideas than anything else.

It was in this vein that I used the word above, since confidence on
extenders protectability was very high simple because of how the tool was
designed on a technical basis software wise.

My main reason for mentioning it was simply that I always kinda found it
smarmy to take a tool that someone else released and then copy it. It
reminds me of stealing.

From our conversations, you know how highly I think of [another tool] . Perhaps
we could have you lead a patent topic on here since I do know from what
you've said in the past this is an area of forte for you. For me it's not in
the least bit. I know I'd read it because I'd love to learn more about it.

On this topic, it was my intention to discuss the status of our current
technical situation only.

It is still in a holding patten until at least today. Since we don't have a
traditional set-up like a typical AMS company and don't offer traditional
tools other than a basic listing program, it's a bit more difficult for us
to just swap parts around.

Added to the lack of financial resources, that too makes it tougher on us at
this time.

With Respect,

Scott

(p.s. I still think your tool, along with Wayne's 'Porsche' counter are two
of the wildest ideas to hit the space over the past five years.)

[amy]

Only the web server on that server has been down since 3/14. The ethical tools.com server itself is up and responds to pings.

eBay bills sellers on the 1st and 15th.  Do they bill developers on the same schedule?

Isn't it possible he knew eBay was going to cut off Ethical's API access for nonpayment on 3/15 and so he turned  the web server off and came up with the 'server struck by lightning' story that he told his customers as a way to buy himsel time to come up with the ebay fees?

[rose]

I can tell you that I patented the process of wiping your ass with toilet paper but it doesn't mean it's true.

[regic]

[quote author=rose link=topic=2443.msg11132#msg11132 date=1142813693]
I can tell you that I patented the process of wiping your ass with toilet paper but it doesn't mean it's true.
[/quote]

If it was issued prior to 1975 do you have a patent number so I can verify your claim?  I am unable to find any patents issued after 1975 for wiping your ass.  See for yourself:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=0&f=S&l=50&d=PTXT&RS=toilet+AND+paper&Refine=Refine+Search&Refine=Refine+Search&Query=toilet+AND+paper+and+wipe

[xppman]

[mandy]

AuctionByteMe article:

Ethical Technologies' website went down early last week and is still inaccessible. No explanation has been forthcoming from the company or from eBay...

One seller who was using Ethical's sell-through tool wrote to say he lost nearly $2000 in eBay fees due to the ongoing outage, which started late on March 14 and resulted in his auctions failing to extend. He said he has not heard from the company and said the main office number had been disconnected...

full article: http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m03/i21/s04

[xppman]

He lost nearly $2000 in eBay fees.
Ha ha ha.
That's what he gets for being unethical and using a tool that
gives such an unfair advantage by manipulating the search
so his wares are almost always showing up on top of others. 

Greedy