Open letter

[matt wilson]

tomg wrote:

>
>
> > Unless you have gone to the trouble of patenting your designs, anybody
> > can go into production with them.  'Twas ever thus.

not true. once you have created an original design, poem, song, sculpture,
or what have you, its yours. its protected by law as your intellectual
property. (but
see below) think about it: you invent something (say, a circuit) and the
guy looking over your
shoulder copies it and laughs "haha you didn't patent/copywrite
your ideas. i have free reign to rip you off!" ? no no no.

patenting something does a couple of different things: first, it clears up,
as a matter
of law, just who owns something. so in the above example, lets say there is
an
ownership challenge regarding the circuit: the over the shoulder guy goes
into production with your circuit.
further assume there was a videotape of him looking
over your shoulder, copying your design way back when. hence, there is no
doubt that its your
design that he copied. its still your design and you could sue him. of
course in real life there isn't
usually such handy records of such things. so, without positive proof that
its yours, lets say he
claims "i invented this cicuit!". had you patented or copywrited your work,
there would
be no real issue: its yours and thats that.

second, if you want to sell a design to someone (like a manufacturer) they
are going to want to
know who owns it to avoid potential problems. you show them a patent and
your idea, product,
etc. is worth more right away. the patent protects the resale of the idea.

this discussion makes me think of my epoxied arp 4012 "moog ladder" filter
in my 2600.
there is some lore regarding both arp and moog "borrowing" from each
other's patents
around this era. they allegedly mutually agreed not to litigate because
they were both
doing it!  the funny part is that i'm sure arp patented the 4012, and then
nevertheless
sealed it up so that no one (including arp techs) could service the thing.
of course, in
order to patent something, you have to tell the world just what you did,
how you did it,
etc. so patenting something really lets the cat of the bag. (maybe arp
didn't patent it,
they just tried to keep it secret with the epoxy!).

in fact, the kentucky colonel's 11 secret herbs and spices is truly that: a
secret. its
not patented (neither is coca cola!): if it was, anyone could look it up
and make it at home.
(that a whole other story there: home brew....)

getting hungry....and yes i am an attorney.
--
matt wilson, odyssey sound
 email: sebsi23 at hooked.net
  web: www.wenet.net/~sebsi23
   phone: (415) 675-4886