Awesome!  Mammoth coolers have a lifetime warranty!

I'm going to check them out.  If RTIC is allowed to keep selling then this case should be tossed.

My panties are in a wad.

Wolfpack said:

It sounds like I may not be aware of the whole story but, the patent office thought they had something original...

http://patents.justia.com/assignee/yeti-coolers-llc

They don't give patents away without some work- if anyone had prior art then it could invalidate. 

Certain narrow aspects of some of Yeti's coolers have patents. The general idea of a rotomolded cooler was not invented by Yeti. There is nothing magical about Yeti coolers.

Yeti has a patent on a specific way that their rubber latches hook/close. Yeti did not invent rubber latches as they have been used in various ways on various things for decades.

A lot of patents are granted that never should have been. The US Patent Office has been understaffed for many years which limits how much time a patent examiner can really expend on a proper search of prior art.

As a result, patent trolls have become a serious and expensive problem in recent years. It is not cheap or easy to try and get a patent overturned. Many companies just settle and pay licensing fees rather than trying to fight what may well be widely regarded as a frivolous patent.

Some companies do fight back - Newegg has a reputation for fighting and beating patent trolls.

Yeti may well be in the right in some of their suits. They may well be just trying to intimidate competition in some of their suits. Beats me.

Wolfpack said:

1move said:

I like Yeti but **** like this makes me mad. If you believe in your product and your consumer base why do you even need to worry about competition? 

Huh? Then why do we have patents? If you design and develop a new product, basically invent a new product segment, and someone comes along and copies your products why shouldn't you defend it? 

Yeti essentially patented a bunch of generic things which can be altered and voilà you have a similar cooler. Yeti sues often and does it to smaller companies that don't have nearly as much market share or money as Yeti, hence why most companies go under because of funding to protect their own design. 

Yeti copied another companies idea and then decided to patent it themselves so they can go around suing people

Chubbs said:

I am not affiliated with yeti or any other cooler company. But I am in the legal business and have vision to any lawsuit in US. What's amazing is how many people speak their mind on these cases without any knowledge of the cases. Yeti certainly does have intellectual property to protect and any of us would do the same if in their position. Especially the RTIC case. I will be buying a RTIC cooler soon, but if I were Yeti and one of my developers left to form a company with my same exact cooler specs I would be doing the same thing they are. I think we all would. 

RTIC has the "exact same specs"?

Funny, an RTIC 45 actually gives you 45 quarts  of volume. A Yeti 45? Not even close (37 quarts).

An RTIC 65 actually gives you 65 quarts of volume. A Yeti 65? Not even close (57 quarts).

Wouldn't it be funny if actual Yeti owners were to file a class action suit against Yeti for false advertising?

A Yeti 65 does not actually have 65 quarts of volume.  Etc., etc.

Of course Yeti doesn't really explicitly state that their Yeti 65 provides 65 quarts of volume. They're content to keep allowing their customers to just assume the model number equates to quart capacity.

However, I guess they do give themselves some legal protection in their fine print:

***

WHAT SIZE COOLER SHOULD I BUY?

Please see our dimension chart for measurements and capacity. The Tundra series matches closely (usually within an inch) of many popular sized marine coolers that have been on the market for years. However, the quart size of the YETI cooler will be a bit lower due to the thickness of the walls and amount of insulation. 

***

So yeah he saw a flaw and took advantage of it with his new company. 

Zippylip said:

Yeti is pissed because they got out ahead of this thing (way, way, way overcharging for a box that slows the melting of ice) much in the same way BGE got out ahead of their thing (way, way, way overcharging for blobs of enhanced clay that slows the burning of fuel).  Then, as always happens in a free market, someone else had a Vision to sell the same thing for less money & that big wet bite they take out of the leader’s ass always hurts.

Only the person that had the vision was a developer of yeti who left. That's the issue and why yeti is all in on fighting it. 

Chubbs said:

Zippylip said:

Yeti is pissed because they got out ahead of this thing (way, way, way overcharging for a box that slows the melting of ice) much in the same way BGE got out ahead of their thing (way, way, way overcharging for blobs of enhanced clay that slows the burning of fuel).  Then, as always happens in a free market, someone else had a Vision to sell the same thing for less money & that big wet bite they take out of the leader’s ass always hurts.

Only the person that had the vision was a developer of yeti who left. That's the issue and why yeti is all in on fighting it. 

So what, happens every day.  Non-compete & other intellectual property legalities aside, Yeti will simply never stem the tide of cheaper equally  effective alternatives from taking market share particularly when they start rolling in from China if they haven't already.