[Discuss] FAQ on preventing others from claiming ownership of open-source hardware?

[Emilio Velis]

As I stated on a previous email thread, the good thing about publishing
open source documents in a repository is the capability to make prior art
more obvious. The most useful way to prevent IP offices from granting
patents that infringe open source inventions is to make available all
necessary information to people in charge of substantive examinations as a
passive preventive measure, which is what Dr. Troxler recommends earlier.

Another way to do it is through actively reviewing new patent filings and
submitting prior art to the national or regional office undergoing the
examination. I'm not familiar with this, but here is an example I found on
Slashdot (the example is about a software patent):
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html
http://patents.stackexchange.com/
As far as I understand, there is no way right now of shotting down a patent
filing, so the best way to do it would be to teach people how to document
and define claims for an invention that can be good enough to stop a patent
process.

I think OSHWA or rather, the open hardware community should have our own
way of dealing with this from a legal standpoint in a way that makes sense
for the maker community.


On 10 September 2014 12:53, Dr. Peter Troxler <trox at fabfolk.com> wrote:

> important question
>
> I have a couple of thoughts on that
>
> (1) there is defensive publication — e.g. ip.com or
> defensivepublications.org which uses the same database (apparently
> submission is free there).
> http://www.nature.com/bioent/2003/030101/full/nbt0202-191.html describes
> the background of defensive publication and why it is not an invention of
> open source evangelists, but a byproduct of hardcore IP protection
> strategies (with illustrative examples from genetic technology).
>
> (2) I’m wondering if describing open source hardware in “claims” (as they
> do in patens) and obscure diagrams and then submitting to above sites
> would “help” lawyers understand open source hardware better …?
>
> / Peter
>
> On 10 Sep 2014, at 20:40, David A. Mellis <dmellis at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> One concern that seems to come up (e.g. in Pablo’s recent email) is that
> someone will try to patent, or otherwise claim ownership of someone else’s
> open-source hardware design. Potentially, this could include trying to
> prevent the original developer of the hardware from continuing their work.
> It seems like it would be good to address this issue in our FAQ (
> http://www.oshwa.org/faq/) — but I’m not quite sure what to say about it.
>
> So, what suggestions do you all have for people that are worried about
> their open-source hardware project getting patented or otherwise claimed by
> a third-party?
>
> I’ll try to synthesize people’s suggestions into a new FAQ.
>
> David
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