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

[Gerrit Niezen]

Hi,

I recently came across a great article on “How To Read A Patent" (TL;DR it’s all about the claims):
http://adlervermillion.com/how-to-read-a-patent/

The author of the article is Eric Adler, a patent lawyer working with Brooklyn Law School’s technology clinic (BLIP), advising law students who provide free legal defense for companies fighting patent trolls:
https://medium.com/patents-technology-law/law-students-fend-off-a-patent-troll-2b8a708277fc

Emilio’s mention of the Ask Patents website in his e-mail reminded me of this as they also try to fight the good fight against patent trolls.

Cheers,
Gerrit

On 10 Sep 2014, at 20:12, Emilio Velis <contacto at emiliovelis.com> wrote:

> 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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> 
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