Patent violations?!

[WeAreAs1 at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/11/00 8:47:11 AM, you wrote:

<<And would I be allowed to publish a circuit to which patent rights are

still active? >>

I think it's OK to publish your derivative circuit.  After all, the original 
patent is in its own way a very public disclosure of the idea.  The original 
inventor takes a certain amount of risk by patenting, because the process 
actually exposes his idea to a lot more people than if he had just gone ahead 
and put his idea directly to commercial use without patenting, but kept the 
details secret.  This, indeed, is one of the several reasons Don Lancaster is 
so vehemently opposed to the use of patents (in most cases).  Anyway, as long 
as you aren't trying to make money with the derivative, I don't think you can 
get in trouble for telling people how you did it.  Keep in mind, however, 
that I learned everything I know about the law from watching Ally Mcbeal, 
Matlock, a shop-worn videotape of To Kill a Mockingbird, and last year's 
congressional hearings on Monicagate.

Michael Bacich