Patents are stupid and far too expensive for people like us.
You need to sell millions of units to justify the cost of a patent.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that's the way patents are today.
My late father had aone full-blown patent to his name -- a method to encapsulate electrical windings for a fan motor, dated sometime around 1950 or so but owned by his employer (standard practice since Thomas Edison).
Meantime, in the numerical string of patents, and butted up against his patent, there was a guy who invented childrens' games that mostly involved "going fishing" with a magnet on a string suspended from a little stick, trying to lift game pieces from behind a cardboard screen.
"Magnet boy" patented maybe half a dozen games, and I guess some children enjoyed them. If you had a GE fan made in the 1950s, you enjoyed how my dad's single patent made the fan almost totally silent. GE sold millions of these fans.
Dad never saw a dime on the patent, but he didn't care. He did his designing for the love of invention.
At least nowadays, hi-tech companies generally pay bonuses on patents awarded, and put a little plaque in the front lobby for the patent.
Where I work now, though, the patent plaques reflect only THIS YEAR's patents. My peeps invent lotsa stuff, and there's lotsa my peeps.
No, it's not IBM (ecch).
73
Jim N6OTQ
>________________________________
> From: Rick Sparber <rgsparber@...>
>To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
>Sent: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 6:43 PM
>Subject: RE: [Homebrew_PCBs] Printing of replica of PCB on paper
>
>
>Interesting discussion on cnczone.com. However, I would expect that if a given layout was essential to the operation of a circuit, then it would be included in the patent.
>
>Rick
>Copyleft user ;-)
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mitch Davis
>Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 4:37 PM
>To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Printing of replica of PCB on paper
>
>On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 6:05 AM, Jim <n6otq@...> wrote:
>> All,
>>
>> When a magazine provides a PCB design and builder instructions, the assumption under "fair use" is
>
>In the USA, PCB layouts are not covered by copyright. See response 6:
>
> http://www.cnczone.com/forums/cnczone_club_house/12775-copyright_circuit_boards_-_legal_discussion.html
>
>Mitch (copyleft fan)
>
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