On Wednesday 07 November 2007 22:55:34 dirk.bonne@xxxxxxx wrote:
J. R. Sparks wrote:
If Microsoft did manage to build the Python 2007 the wheels would
lock up, the chain drive would develop bad sectors and the brakes
would probably need patches to fix them.
Seriously, Alan Maurer's Tilting Trike is patented and you see
nothing about it. It is a great idea but because he is trying to
find someone to build it you here nothing. If it were public
knowledge we could all have one.
AFAIK, this is untrue. Even if it is patented you can always make the
bike non-commercially. The idea around patents is to give a carrot to
the inventer so he /she documents his/her secrets in a patent. The
carrot is to give the inventer a time limited monopoly on licensing
the idea for commercial reasons.
In the software world patents are totally misused, but that is
another story.
dirk
yes i fully agree here. Software is a language to me, already
protected by copyright from day one you release it (now matter if
open or closed source). Math and logic components are explicitly not
patentable, still in the USA and EU there are plenty of software
patents granted.
If you follow news in the IT world, it ends up like this:
company a sues company b and finally they cross-licence their patent
portfolio, thereby creating a patent free world among/between them.
This excludes those small inventors from entering the market, which
is often claimed to be the main benefit of patents beside public
documentation.
In the mechanical world, my experience is this: patentlawyer from my
company comes to me for patenting stuff i developed. "Mr Steuwer,
when i'm done with you invention, you yourself would be unable to
understand, what i have been writing about" So public documentation
ends up being lawyer-speak...especially if you try to read and
understand software
patents ;-(
It takes 3-4 years untill your patent is filed at least in your
homecountry, even longer on the international scale.
Then its still worth nothing, untill it is tested in court. So a big
company comes along, trying to dig out prior art or trying show that
the required inventive step was not big enough compared to status quo
to call your devolopment an invention. -> your done.
So society has to look carefully at benefits and pitfalls of patent
systems in specific fields of technology.
I much agree with henry. If you open up all inventions it is up to
anyone what you do with it. It takes much more than patents to build
up a business. Just because you filed a patent it still doesn't mean
your thing is feasable, manufacturable, machinable, not to pricy,
etc...
Great overview herny. Would it be possible to add a structured
objective/advantage/disadvantage list to each of these desgins?
Whe should really do a bike design wiki site, where we could all edit
things together, otherwise it is always up to one person managing a
site. i guess Jürgen is reaching his limits as well :-)
Regards,
DirkS
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