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by antonb2011 5116 days ago
Don't worry about it, man. He can patent it all he wants, but thing is not gonna fly. It's called a "tie-in sale", and the United States Anti-Trust law prohibits it. McDonald's tried this trick a long time ago with their franchise owners in order to better account for how much they sold, by forcing them to buy paper cups and other supplies directly from Corporate (i.e. prohibiting third party suppliers). I think it got really high in courts, but eventually the franchise owners won.
1 comments
chris_wot 5116 days ago
In Australia it's called "restraint of trade" and is totally illegal. eBay tried to do something similar by forcing users to use PayPal and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) struck it down.

This patent might work in areas of the world that don't have much consumer protection, but they will NOT work in areas of the world that care about anti-competitive practices.

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chris_wot 5108 days ago
Argh! Not restraint of trade, "third line forcing" is the term! Oops.
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