[Heathkit] Re: Copyright protection

[Ted Bruce]

Karl,
That is not my interpretation of the law.  I'm not an
intellectual property attorney, but I did have a
semester of intellectual property law in grad school
in 1999, and I interpreted it every day as director of
software development for a multinational software
development company.

For reference on what constitutes a design patent, see
<http://www.bitlaw.com/patent/design.html> for
distinction between design and utility patents,
particularly as applied to technology.

A utility patent has more complexity involved.  In
general, a patent is an expression of an idea, not the
idea itself.  It also must be new, useful and
non-obvious.  A schematic diagram would not be
patentable as an expression of an idea, but it could
be used as part of the patent application process. 
The rule that requires a patent application to be
filed within one year of the following: any public use
of the invention by the inventor, a sale of the
invention, an offer to sell the invention, or any
description of the invention by the inventor in a
published document. Failure to file a patent
application within this one-year period results in the
invention's passing into the public domain, where it
is no longer eligible for a patent.

See <http://www.bitlaw.com/patent/requirements.html>
for a description of patent law.  Note the
controversial aspects as applied to computer code.  I
get ulcers over that subject.  In Europe, the
patenting of computer code, which has traditionally
been the subject of copyright law, threatens to halt
the development of the Linux operating system, because
any algorithm used must be new and non-obvious.

73,
Ted KX4OM


--- KHeck73 at aol.com wrote:
>  
> In a message dated 4/26/2005 1:10:09 P.M. Eastern
> Daylight Time,  
> dfischer at usol.com writes:
> 
> From:  Ted Bruce <kilocycles at yahoo.com>
> To:  heathkit at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Heathkit] Re: Copyright  protection
> Date: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 12:56 PM
> 
> Adding to Glen's  excellent post on the subject, a
> person can make it clear to the reader or  user of
> the
> work that the work is an original work and is
> copyrighted by  him, by stating so and using the
> copyright symbol on web sites, printed  material and
> other media stated in the Act.
> 
> This does not constitute  registration of the
> copyright
> under the law, but it does show claim to  ownership
> of
> the work and is useful as evidence for filing suit 
> for
> copyright infringement in court.  As Glen said,
> registration of  copyrighted material is not
> required
> for protection under the  law.
> 
> 
> 
> ..
> In the case of schematic diagrams, I've heard that a
> copyright applies only  
> to the artwork itself. So, the original diagram
> cannot be copied, but it's  OK 
> to re-draw it, then it's legal to copy. If the
> circuit is to be  protected, 
> the design must be patented, not just a copyright on
> the  circuit drawing. 
> Anybody know if that is definitely true?
>  
> -Karl.  
> 

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