gar
Senior Member
- Location
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Occupation
- EE
110701-1338 EDT
tallgirl:
My ratio of issued to filed was 10/11 plus a few foreign patents that were simply copies of US patents. But, that was a different time and one did extensive searching before applying. But after this batch of filings and my new concentration on industrial equipment in a specialized area I chose to follow the trade secret route.
Some general comments:
Copyright exists as soon as you write, draw, photograph, or create some expression.
This is extremely important relative to photos and video. You can easily get in big trouble here for copying.
For books and written material there is more latitude on what you can copy without explicit permission.
Copyrighting IC layouts can be very important. PC board layouts less important.
Copyrighting a circuit drawing is of practically no value. But since you drew it it is copywritten.
Copyright does not protect ideas.
Patents provide protection of many types of ideas.
Suppose you have an invention of a new type of torque transducer. This device is constructed of a spring material that has a new property, previously unknown, that produces an optical output proportional to stress. Unless this property is unique to the device being a torque transducer I would suggest you consider it in its broader terms. A stress sensor based on optics. You would want to search the patent records for this property rather than torque transducers. But you also want to search any public information that might exist on the property.
On the other hand if the property is publicly known, then you would want to search in a more limited area relative to how this property has been used, and why it might or might not be obvious to use it in the torque transducer.
.
tallgirl:
My ratio of issued to filed was 10/11 plus a few foreign patents that were simply copies of US patents. But, that was a different time and one did extensive searching before applying. But after this batch of filings and my new concentration on industrial equipment in a specialized area I chose to follow the trade secret route.
Some general comments:
Copyright exists as soon as you write, draw, photograph, or create some expression.
This is extremely important relative to photos and video. You can easily get in big trouble here for copying.
For books and written material there is more latitude on what you can copy without explicit permission.
Copyrighting IC layouts can be very important. PC board layouts less important.
Copyrighting a circuit drawing is of practically no value. But since you drew it it is copywritten.
Copyright does not protect ideas.
Patents provide protection of many types of ideas.
Suppose you have an invention of a new type of torque transducer. This device is constructed of a spring material that has a new property, previously unknown, that produces an optical output proportional to stress. Unless this property is unique to the device being a torque transducer I would suggest you consider it in its broader terms. A stress sensor based on optics. You would want to search the patent records for this property rather than torque transducers. But you also want to search any public information that might exist on the property.
On the other hand if the property is publicly known, then you would want to search in a more limited area relative to how this property has been used, and why it might or might not be obvious to use it in the torque transducer.
.
