Magnet Motor Recent Patent Application

[Pirate88179]

@klickUK:

What I meant was if we were all building and testing and possibly selling/distributing something that had been granted a patent, then we could be sued.  I did not mean to imply that if we were just talking or posting about a design then we might get in trouble.  I am not always as clear on expressing my thoughts as I intend to be. Also, I am not an attorney and I was just repeating what an attorney told me at one time in relation to patents. In the meantime, I say the heck with the patent office, let us just continue to research and experiment and exchange information under open source.

Bill

[klicUK]

@klickUK:

What I meant was if we were all building and testing and possibly selling/distributing something that had been granted a patent, then we could be sued.  I did not mean to imply that if we were just talking or posting about a design then we might get in trouble.  I am not always as clear on expressing my thoughts as I intend to be. Also, I am not an attorney and I was just repeating what an attorney told me at one time in relation to patents. In the meantime, I say the heck with the patent office, let us just continue to research and experiment and exchange information under open source.

Bill

@Bill,

Thanks for clearing that up, I completely agree.

The trouble is if you did make such a device, you would want it in the public forum AND make some money as well in order to finance further R&D.

klicUK

[shruggedatlas]

One thing I would like to add is that people often overlook the value of patents in spurring innovation.  While it is true that patent trolls can use an existing patent to extract licensing fees or shut down a competitor, what often happens in response to this is that the competitor makes a small improvement to the competing device to get around the patent.  So this is what I would urge in this situation.  Of course, the whole invention may be junk, who knows.

[ken_nyus]

In the corporate world patents have also become bargaining chips. You want to have a big portfolio of things to trade, so if another company comes after you for one of their patents, you can make a deal to cross-license one of your holding chips that they want.

I believe the company that by far has the most patents granted each year is IBM, some of these in very esoteric areas.

[jeffc]

One thing I would like to add is that people often overlook the value of patents in spurring innovation.  While it is true that patent trolls can use an existing patent to extract licensing fees or shut down a competitor, what often happens in response to this is that the competitor makes a small improvement to the competing device to get around the patent.  So this is what I would urge in this situation.  Of course, the whole invention may be junk, who knows.

I would have to agree.  When one patent results in many improvements that are also patented, then the system is working according to the original concept.  One thing that would be interesting, is to see if opensource could have a team of inventors submit a patent (completely original or improvement), while executing assignments to the public domain.  (assignments executed at same time of patent application submission).

Regards,
jeffc