Patent violations?!

[Harry Bissell]

The current patent law may be from 17-20 years (there was a change) there
is also
an issue of whether the protection extends from date of filing, or date of
issue.

The Patent Tradmark Office PTO has a website... if you know the number of
the
patent you can see whether it is in force. Many companies fail to make the
required
maintenance payments and their patents expire early. Check the ones that
apply
to you...

You can refer to a patent whenever you want. The information is public
domain... but
if your new design infringes the patent, you can't sell it without a
licence. You can publish
whatever you want patent or not.

BUT seriously folks... lets be responsible DIY'ers and give credit where
credit is due.
The Law and Ethics sometimes don't overlap.

H^) harry (who will identify the patent I am working on when I post it here
!!!)

John E Blacet wrote:

> IMHO: 20 years is the patent duration. (From Filing Date, I believe...)
>
> Patents are in the public domain as far as reproduction is concerned.
> I'm not sure what trouble you would get in by publishing a circuit
> derived from an active patent. Typically, if the patent holder notices
> this, they may issue a warning that the commercial use of the circuit
> may violate their patent rights.
>
> The key to understanding patents is that USE is protected, not the
> information. OTOH, Trade Secret laws cover the public disclosure of
> information. You would have had to sign a NDA or illegally aquired such
> information to be in trouble in this case, however.
>
> I'm not a lawyer and this advice should be taken as personal opinion
> only.
>
> Regards.
> -------------------------
> John Blacet
> Blacet Research Music Electronics
> http://www.blacet.com
> -------------------------
> blacet at metro.net
> -------------------------
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