[Discuss] GE and Quirky partnering

[Alicia Gibb]

I would say "yes" :) Unfortunately, I don't run GE. I think this is one of
those things that large corps are going to have to be careful of. When then
use the term open, they need to know what expectations that has within the
community, because we will take it and run with it in ways they might not
realize unless they've done their homework with what open means in regard
to hardware. It would be nice if they had directly said oshw or even just
open sourced. I'll try to clarify with them if I can.

Alicia


On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 9:50 AM, Chris Church <thisdroneeatspeople at gmail.com
> wrote:

>
> On Apr 12, 2013, at 10:45 AM, Alicia Gibb wrote:
>
> This phrase: Quirky and GE are working to return patents to their
> intended purpose, to provide inspiration for future inventors.
>
> gives me the feeling that they are giving up their rights to the patents,
> not just allowing the patent itself to be viewed, as you said, we can
> already view patents since they are public, so that would be ridiculous. I
> think what they mean is that they will be opening up their patents for
> people to use rather than licensing them. But I also believe in unicorns,
> so maybe I'm just optimistic.
>
> Alicia
>
>
>
> I think the real determining factor here, in regards to "open-ness" will
> be the answer to this question:
>
> "If I design a product around one of these patents, and Quirky turns it
> down, can I produce it on my own without being sued by GE?"
>
> Chris
>
>
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