Engineer Investigates Patent Infringement Case Concerning Inflatable Mattresses

Case Overview

This case involves an intellectual property dispute involving two domestic manufacturers of inflatable mattresses. The plaintiff manufacturer accused the defendant of infringing on patents concerning tension structure design, which maintained the structural integrity of the inflatable product. An expert engineer familiar with the design and development of these products was sought to review the two products in question and opine on whether the tension mechanisms used in these products differed.

Questions to the Mechanical Engineering expert and their responses

Please describe your experience as it relates to the structural integrity of inflatables.

I am an award-winning professor of mechanical engineering, a licensed professional engineer, and a certified manufacturing engineer. I have been doing research in the area of inflatable structures and in particular the fabric that is used to inflate the structure for the past 14 years. I am also very familiar with the tension mechanisms and structural integrity. I have published 10+ papers in the area, and I have 3 patents for testing the fixtures of the inflatable structures. Additionally, I have served as an expert on several patent infringement cases in the past.

About the expert

This expert has thirty years of experience in mechanical engineering and biomechanics. He earned his BS in mechanical engineering from Sharif University of Technology before obtaining his MS and PhD in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University. He holds numerous certifications including being certified as a manufacturing engineer and as a licensed professional engineer. He is a member of several prestigious industry societies and is an elected fellow of the American Society of Mechanical and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. He holds 17 US patents and 50 technical reports and is the recipient of the Inventor Award from General Motors Corp. He is also one of the three editors of the Marks Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, published by McGraw-Hill. Formerly, this expert served as a design engineer at NRTV, a mechanical engineer at Danube Corporation, and the director of science and engineering and chairman of the department of mechanical engineering at City College University of New York. Currently, he is the director of advanced engineering design at a college in New York and is the founder of an engineering design firm.