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Dyson Wins Bagless Vacuum Patent Case

This document discusses a court case involving Dyson and its bagless vacuum cleaner patent. It also addresses the impacts of Dyson gaining market share in the vacuum cleaner market. 1. Dyson being granted a patent monopoly allows it to charge higher prices, but also encourages investment in research and development. 2. Competition in the vacuum cleaner market benefits consumers by providing lower prices, higher quality products, and a wider variety of options. 3. If Dyson continues to gain market share, authorities should be concerned about the potential for it to exploit consumers as a monopoly. However, increased market share could also spur more competition from other firms.

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Dhanashree Chavan
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546 views2 pages

Dyson Wins Bagless Vacuum Patent Case

This document discusses a court case involving Dyson and its bagless vacuum cleaner patent. It also addresses the impacts of Dyson gaining market share in the vacuum cleaner market. 1. Dyson being granted a patent monopoly allows it to charge higher prices, but also encourages investment in research and development. 2. Competition in the vacuum cleaner market benefits consumers by providing lower prices, higher quality products, and a wider variety of options. 3. If Dyson continues to gain market share, authorities should be concerned about the potential for it to exploit consumers as a monopoly. However, increased market share could also spur more competition from other firms.

Uploaded by

Dhanashree Chavan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Activity 8.

5
Vacuum cleaner Dyson victorious in bagless-machine court case

1. A patent in effect creates a monopoly for the inventor. Outline the possible impact on Dyson
and similar firms of this legal monopoly. [4]
Ans. In this situation Dyson can charge higher prices to its consumers. Seen, that they have won
the case, consumers will feel more reliable on Dyson than any other business, so they will buy the
product even if it’s price is high. Also, this reduces the competition for Dyson and encourages their
investment in further research and development.

2. Analyse the benefits to consumers of competition between firms in the vacuum-cleaner


market. [8]
Ans. There are various benefits to consumers when there is competition between firms.Firms may
mostly try to encourage consumers to buy their products by lowering their prices. This can benefit
customers where they can choose which product to buy according to the price. In a vacuum-
cleaner market the competitors can provide a wide range of vacuum-cleaners to attract consumers.
This will create a wide choice of products for consumers to choose from. Businesses will also try to
improve the quality of their vacuum-cleaners so that the consumers will feel the need to buy their
product. Consumers have a choice and they also benefit with good quality of product and lower
prices at the same time. In a competitive market, a firm will try to develop or upgrade their product
or maybe manufacture a different version of a product which gives consumers a wider range of
products to buy from the market. 

3. If Dyson’s product continues to gain market share, should this, in your opinion, be of
concern to the Competition Commission authorities in the UK and in the EU? Justify your
answer. [10]
Ans. This should be of concern to the Competition Commission authorities in the UK and in the
EU. Increase in shares will give firms a potential to exploit consumers. Dyson can become a
monopoly business. Higher prices if the monopoly has so little competition that consumers have no
option but to buy from this one firm. There will be less investment in new products as a result of
complacency and little risk of competition. The firms will also not have any intention to lower their
costs or to improve their efficiency. This will be a huge drawback for consumers and lead to
consumers spending more money than needed as they don’t have a choice.
However, this can be taken as a positive effect too. When a market turns into a monopoly market,
the government will try to encourage various other businesses to make efficient products in order
to eliminate monopoly and create competition in the market. An increase in competition will
motivate all firms to work harder and produce good quality of goods to increase their sales and
their market share. Highly competitive market means that consumers will benefit from it. Moreover,
this will give consumers a choice again and it can end the monopoly.

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