[sdiy] touch keyboard patent

[brianw]

Mattias has the right approach: Look at the details of the patents that you're worried about.

My understanding is that many patents are improvements upon older patents. As far as I know, this improvement is all that the new patent can protect - the new company cannot take the older company's patent away from them. Thus, if you implement an old patent that has expired without incorporating the improvements from the newer patents, then you should be fine. Of course, IANAPA (I am not a Patent Attorney).

The goal of patenting is usually to be as broad as possible, but I doubt that anyone has a current patent that broadly covers all touch switches, even in the shape of a piano keyboard.

Brian


On Oct 6, 2024, at 3:09 PM, Mattias Rickardsson wrote:
> Are these patents dealing with the shape of the touch areas/traces, the control/detection circuitry and signals, methods of detecting continuous position/pressure, or all of the above?
> 
> /mr
> 
> Den sön 6 okt. 2024 20:05Tom Wiltshire <tom at electricdruid.net> skrev:
>> +1 agree. Just because the patent exists doesn't mean it's enforceable, or even that there's anyone still interested in enforcing it.
>> 
>> Make a note of which the *earliest* patent you've found is, and if anyone comes after you because of one of the later ones, tell them that there's prior art and theirs is worth nothing!
>> 
>>> On 6 Oct 2024, at 18:10, Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> People patent all sorts of things in the hope somebody just pays up.   I can't imagine there's been much innovative in touch apart from the Apple two fingered gestures for decades so just go ahead.
>>> 
>>> On 6 Oct 2024 17:59, Roman Sowa via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
>>> Has anyone ever dealt with capacitive touch keyboard for musical 
>>> instrument in legal terms?
>>> There seems to be quite a few patents out there for this, and many of 
>>> them not expired at all.
>>> I wonder how EDP managed that with their Wasp and Gnat, or maybe the 
>>> patent weren't yet granted back then?
>>> There are also currently made instruments with touch keyboards like 
>>> Buchla and all its clones, MicroFreak and others.
>>> Possibly if I make the pads in funny shape and with obligatory stupid 
>>> graphics, I'm safe, but I'd really like my keyboard to look like keyboard.
>>> 
>>> Roman
>