Open Metal Detector Project Charter

[scrungy_doolittle]

logic analyzer hands down. but then I am an embedded firmware engineer, so I depend on my logic analyzer every single day.

Would you buy one before an oscilloscope though Philip? I know which one I would rather have if I could only have one.

[scrungy_doolittle]

Don Lancaster is a good friend of mine. And he is directly spot on. That being said, you *can* practice a a patent. Under US law, you can make a patented product for your own use, you can't sell it or give it away. Minelab would certainly be in the wrong, unless perhaps someone is selling a kit that infringes, then yes they could sue.
Patents can be challenged and invalidated if you can find prior art.

[Lima41]

Oh boys!,

it's obviously more serious. They can't answer anymore.
Who was the evil? Greedlab?
Ready for the "Total Thermo-Nuclear War & Melt-Down"(c)(r)(tm)?
^sif

[Davor]

Beats me.

[Aziz]

Can someone leak me the NDA or the contract?
^sif

[Aziz]

Hey Davor,

I see, you aren't a member of the group anymore. (Or I can't remember you were a member. Were you?)
Anyway. You're "trying" so say something flourish. Seriously.
So what's happened to the guys?
^sif

[Davor]

You can herd sheep, but you can't herd cats. A free spirit is also free from any kind of herd.

On a second thought, there is a way of joining like minds on a project of some kind: the tribes. Unlike the poorly marketed spaghetti western view of the tribe as a strictly hierarchical structure with a chief and his subjects (crazy drunken warriors), a real tribe is a completely flat structure with free fluctuation of members and no hierarchy whatsoever. Hwoever is unfamiliar with this type of organisation should read Beyond Civilization by Daniel Quinn.
Tribes are a real deal.

[Aziz]

Oh boys!,

it's obviously more serious. They can't answer anymore.
Who was the evil? Greedlab?
Ready for the "Total Thermo-Nuclear War & Melt-Down"(c)(r)(tm)?
^sif

[Aziz]

Hey,

what's happened to the members of "Open Project Code of Conduct V3.0 Participants"(c)(r)(tm)?
Have you signed something, that you got forced like the three-monkeys?


^sif

[Davor]

There is a fresh posting of a webinar from yesterday on Patexia regarding "Defensive Publication" as means of open source IP protection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv6aRxYmvvg

IMHO it is the only reasonable way of protecting your ideas as they come, while not stripping you naked.

[Prospector_Al]

Hi Pelanj,

I don't think that posting the idea on a forum is equivalent to publishing. Furthermore, patent examiners don't read posts on a forum.

Once a patent has been allowed, it's very costly to get it invalidated. If the invention is really worth it, a "pro se" patent application will establish priority and prevent any patent shark from stealing the invention. If it turns out that the idea amounts to anything, one can always turn it over to a patent attorney for prosecution...

Just my opinion,

Allan

[chudster]

Hi Chudster

I read your proposal on Document Templates Store.

Thanks for all your great efforts in this legal project matter.

But viewing those CERN form (CERN has IP contracts with his employees and with outsourcing peoples also) I cannot see how using this form as documenting store, IP of project contributor (authors of diverse proposal) can be protected. Nowhere in form is to find something like "authors name".

Thanks for your feedback. As always, I welcome your positive questions. Yes an original author spot should be added. I'll do that on the first doc written and when it is circulated there may be other suggested format changes so I will hopefully only have to update the template once.

This one is not so much legal as technical. We need to start to decide what the 'beast' looks like.

I intend to publish a starting document soon to divide up the detector design into a modular components so we can begin working on the design. It would be better to start it with a forum discussion but I have posted to get discussion about this started (http://www.geotech1.com/forums/showt...tector-Project) but with no discussion yet I will do the bulk of the first pass on this document and provide that for comment to start the ball rolling. No matter, a more formal design approach is probably best from the start.

You should find a copyright notice early on in the template. You are right though that the originating author should be noted somewhere separate as they will be different to the originating author if a not-for-profit entity is formed. I'll look to make that change in the template. As people make changes from the originating author they should have their names noted in the changes section.

Ideally the open licences need to be decided first but that is going to have to happen in parallel with the starting discussion on what the detector looks like. I don't think we are into the hardware circuit design or software design- just design overview at the moment. We may need an entity to legally hold copyright but for the moment (at least with the first doc that I am starting) it will be me holding it on trust for the participants. I can probably do an OK job of the licences and legal stuff but I have written to a couple of international lawyers with an interest in this area hoping for some assistance for us and they have not got back yet.

If there are lawyers out there reading this forum (who don't have a conflict of interest and) who are willing to help then please contact me .

If anyone has a legal budget for me to spend on international lawyers then also get in touch

Chudster

[WM6]

Hi Chudster

I read your proposal on Document Templates Store.

Thanks for all your great efforts in this legal project matter.

But viewing those CERN form (CERN has IP contracts with his employees and with outsourcing peoples also) I cannot see how using this form as documenting store, IP of project contributor (authors of diverse proposal) can be protected. Nowhere in form is to find something like "authors name".

[chudster]

BTW That patent of saving setting on turn off made me laugh... in lieu of crying. Does anyone have a link to it ? I assume that other MD manufacturers are completely ignoring it.

Midas

If that patent is an obvious software patent, then help might be available from here:
https://www.eff.org/patent-busting

Chudster

[chudster]

Have you guys considered that if a ML employee did want to join up and contribute to this open project thingy, that they would actually be far less restricted in the help the could provide if they DID keep it secret? And if their intention is just to 'steal' ideas and not contribute then why would they bother signing up at all. After all the information is going to be there for all to see anyway.. its an OPEN project. Its probably a mistake to think that all employees of a big company are going to share the same anti-competitive ethos. A ML dissenter could become one of the most valuable contributors... especially if it was one of their patent lawyers.

BTW That patent of saving setting on turn off made me laugh... in lieu of crying. Does anyone have a link to it ? I assume that other MD manufacturers are completely ignoring it.

Midas

Yes they could do that. They simply don't sign the code of conduct but would still need to establish trust to work closely with people.

Chudster