Patents, Trademarks, Great Ideas, Open Source etc.

[asathor]

Maybe the time has come for a forum like this to host Open Source Patents for new ideas in sailing and boating.

Only the big corporate builders and designers can afford to enforce their patent (read transfer the profits to their attorneys) so what is the little guy to do when he has a good idea he want to protect.

Publicise it and make it available royalty free with the only restriction being that no one can include/restrict this "invention" in their own patents.

This would also make it easier to get the good ideas into production, for example someone with a machine shop could build canting keel mechanism for several builders instead of depending on contracts from 1 builder.

I am not a builder or designer but I like to tinker and would love to contribute whatever I figure out to do better for the sailing community at large.

What do you think?

[icetreader]

Originally Posted by asathor

so what is the little guy to do when he has a good idea he want to protect.

The answer is simple: If you think your invention has a substantial commercial value you need to invest the time, energy and $$ in patenting, and sue anybody who tries to make money on your intellectual property without your consent.
This is what the government has to offer as an incentive to inventors to create new know-how and make it public.
The system here in the US is not perfect, but it works and it's much better than in other places (EG the EU) where individual inventors really don't have a chance to patent their inventions because of the need to file in multiple countries which makes it so expensive. In fact, you'll find that many inventors from overseas prefer to patent their inventions here in the US and not where they live.

Open source? - Patents have a legal '"shelf life" after which the invention becomes free for anybody to use.

Yoav

[tom kane]

Would someone explain what they consider Open Source Patents means?

[asathor]

The term "Open Source" is used in the software industry but the concept could easily work elsewhere.
Here is one site explaining it. http://www.opensource.org/

Is the idea to eliminate patent protection?

[Robert Gainer]

How does it work in the marine industry? In software you have the source code that makes the product and can change it or add to it. The open source license just asks that you make the improvement available to everyone else that has the software. That means just posting the change you made to the source code on the Internet and now everybody has a copy of the improved product. In the marine industry if you make an improvement to the boat, well, anyone can see what you did and I don’t see what “open source” has to do with it.
All the best,
Robert Gainer

[mattotoole]

Originally Posted by asathor

Maybe the time has come for a forum like this to host Open Source Patents for new ideas in sailing and boating.

Only the big corporate builders and designers can afford to enforce their patent (read transfer the profits to their attorneys) so what is the little guy to do when he has a good idea he want to protect.

Publicise it and make it available royalty free with the only restriction being that no one can include/restrict this "invention" in their own patents.

This would also make it easier to get the good ideas into production, for example someone with a machine shop could build canting keel mechanism for several builders instead of depending on contracts from 1 builder.

I am not a builder or designer but I like to tinker and would love to contribute whatever I figure out to do better for the sailing community at large.

What do you think?

The essential difference is that open source is a type of copyright, which is slightly different from a patent.

Software is also different because it's often not really a product but a service, whereby new things are being built from the same old pieces. Open source licenses ensure the big boys can't hoard all those pieces. May the best builder then win. Even big boys like IBM see great value in this model.

There are some interesting hybrid open source copyrights, for writers, artists, musicians, designers, etc., being promoted by Creative Commons. If writing is a big part of your professional practice, this could be worth learning about.

[tom kane]

I understood that the patent system was to give a business a business advantage to enable a business to develop a product so that it can be made available to the public.
Otherwise without help the public may loose out on some good products.If you look at the many and varied items that do receive Patent Letters perhaps the system needs up-dating.Many granted patents cover a very fine definition between something new and novel and what already has received a patent.At present we have to try and follow the present legal Patent Application System otherwise we may have no claims at all.As an example there is supposed to be many new and novel ideas in Volvos new propulsion drive.It would be very difficult findthem all without very expensive research.