There is a big difference between what is legal, what you can get away with, and what actually occurs.
If you copy a patented device and use it in your garage for your own use (not making any sales with it), no one is going to come after you if no one knows it exists. Even if the company who owns the patent knows that you have replicated their device, what would there motivation be in coming after you? If there is no motivation, they likely will not come after you, since exercising the legal system requires money. If you are making widgets via the patented method and selling them or selling the patented machine, and infringing on the patent holders sales, then there is a very good chance they will come after you. While the law might be black and white, how it impacts situations is entirely different. There is the right vs wrong according to the law. Then there is what actually happens and that is more determined by money than anything else. I have a legitimate legal case against a guy right now. I should be able to sue him for $10K and win easily, but it would cost me about $10K to do it and then there is the question about collecting any judgment. So it is not going to happen even though I have suffered damages. I am better off eating the damages and paying to correct the damages myself. While that might seem "wrong", that is the way the system works. If you write software or make things there is a good chance you have or will infringe on someones patent unknowingly. If that happens and the patent holder finds out and wants to stop you, you might get a cease and desist letter which is pretty cheap to produce. If you continue on and the patent holder wants to stop you, everything gets much more expensive for the patent holder at that point. There is no "patent police" who enforce patent law without charge. If you can't afford to enforce a patent, then IMO, a patent is pretty useless and can even be damaging. Since when a patent is filed, you have to disclose the "invention" and it is made public, which makes copying the device or process a lot easier. Oftentimes you are better off not patenting something, and simply using that invention for your own purposes as the knowledge will not become public via the patent system. I once invented a patentable control scheme for a machine that was unique and allowed us to make the machine at a lower cost than the competitors. These are low volume machines - worldwide perhaps 100 are sold annually. We talked about patenting the idea but after a lot of thought we decided not to since the competition was far behind us in their methods of control and we knew that if we patented the idea, they would become aware of it (or at least it was much more likely). So we never patented the idea. That was about 10 years ago and the competition has never figured it out, as they were apparently too busy struggling with the economy, and being bought up and sold off. The concepts are very simple and common in the electronics world but not understood in this machine industry. The implementation of the idea is not even hidden on the machine, it is right out in the open and visible on the machine, but a layman would never recognize how it works, so the "secret" has been safe for about 10 years now. The same concept is utilized in 4 places on a typical machine, is much more reliable than the alternatives, and it saves about $4-5,000 per machine, maybe slighty more. So in this case not patenting the idea was obviously the right approach. Dave On 6/4/2012 10:03 PM, Kenneth Lerman wrote: > On 06/04/2012 08:31 PM, Jeshua Lacock wrote: > >> On Jun 4, 2012, at 5:41 PM, dave wrote: >> >> >>> It has always been my understanding that you can make a patented >>> device; you just can't sell it. I don't think this precludes using that >>> patented device to make things which you sell. >>> > IANAL and I don't play one on TV. It is my understanding that in the US, > you may NOT use a process or make a patented device without a license. > It does not matter whether you sell it or not. At one point there was a > patent for deactivating hydrogen peroxide for cleaning contact lenses by > means of a (very small) platinum catalyst. The cleaning kit included a > license to use that process. > > You could not just do it yourself without the license. (Well, you could, > but you would be infringing on the patent.) > > Ken > >> Good point. >> >> Also, as far as I know, Makerbot et al have not had much of a legal battle >> so far. The only incidents I am aware of is a handful of big companies have >> sent them cease and desist letters for "things" online at thingverse that >> were essentially 3D scans of "copyrighted" geometry. >> >> >> Best, >> >> Jeshua Lacock >> Founder/Engineer >> 3DTOPO Incorporated >> <http://3DTOPO.com> >> Phone: 208.462.4171 >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Live Security Virtual Conference >> Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and >> threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. 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