[Discuss] OSHW questions
j. eric townsend
jet at allartburns.org
Wed Nov 21 15:33:39 UTC 2012
As so many of us have learned to say, "I am not a lawyer and this is not
legal advice." Also, I'm in the US if that matters much...
On 11/21/2012 4:52 AM, Andrew Katz wrote:
> If you contribute to a project under an agreement which requires
> you to warrant that you have no knowledge of any potentially conflicting patents,
> having done a search could be a bad thing [...]
I worked in consumer electronics from almost 20 years and never
personally received "don't research patents" from a legal team. I have
heard "don't copy patents" (obviously :-) and "try not to look at
current patents while you do research". I always gathered that was
about accidentally copying, not getting into a legal bind. Working with
national and international technology standards requires a lot of
reading of other people's research and development documents. (ex: how
cable TV works, how transmitted television works, how analog modems
work, etc.)
That being said, in the past five years or so, I have heard quite a few
engineer and startup types say they have received "never look at any
patents" advice from their legal counsel, it's mostly been people
involved with selling 3d printers and related technology. I suspect
there is a virtual landmine of patents around 3d printing and related
technology, but I haven't looked yet. :-)
--jet
--
J. Eric Townsend, IDSA
design <http://www.allartburns.org>
hacking <http://www.flatline.net>
fabrication <watch this space>
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