Patent Restrictions?

[vbeeeks]

My advice is just make stuff for yourself and few friends and don't tell anyone about it
Moodz

Eh, it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. It's pretty easy to avoid patents with metal detectors. Carl-NC

I believe in the above two theorems - copy all the patents of minelab - grab the technology - reverse engineer (yourself or with some help) and build the labs in your own version distribute among close friends - and enjoy - also you can come back here for sharing your find under 'Tech' forum and we will analyze each others ethical private build. I hope they cannot re-patent their patent and so the technology prior art will be in "private open" domain. But wait - is it any worth copying the dud designs for your personal use - I hope not - why waste time and money as such.

[Carl-NC]

I guess i underestimated corporate control and power :P

Eh, it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. It's pretty easy to avoid patents with metal detectors.

[mikebg]

Moodz, please explain what will happen if CHINELAB start importing into Australia a thing which there is patented, for example something like the QED project. Does Bugwhiskers pay much money to Australian court to stop the importation of CHINQED?

[brucester]

I see, thanks for that guys.

I guess i underestimated corporate control and power :P

[Aziz]

Everything can be "adapted and arranged". *LOL*
And it has the name "function". *LOL*

The patent system is broken. The inventors invent things to prevent & sue competition only.
Aziz

[moodz]

Hello,

I was wondering if someone could point out the key patents preventing new players from entering the PI MD game?

Like for example, is simply pulsing the coil, amplifying the decay and comparing the result patented?

Or is it individual things such as particular ways of ground balancing or shielding a coil etc?

I contacted the young man over at MIYD who was working on 2 seperate detectors. One that compares decay time with a simple AVR and another that does full DSP on the decay using a 32bit chip.

From what i can tell, he kept it bare bones, completely basic PI. His reply was that he never went commercial because of patent restrictions. What patents would restrict him from selling these detectors?

Surely pulsing a coil is state of the art and analysing the signal is completely software. If the code is original what patents does is breach?

Thanks for a point in the right direction :P

You will only be "nailed" by a corporate if your detector looks like it could be mass produced, lower price and has good performance characteristics that will challenge the value equation of current market leaders.

If you are a competent tech its very easy to make a hobby detector that works reasonably well ( see carl's projects and others in this forum and the book ).

It is somewhat harder to make a detector that works extremely well and achieves the goals of ground balance, EF cancel, discrim, power saving, EMI reject and all the other UD ( ultimate detector ) goals.

It is even harder to then take your UD design and ready it for market ( manufacturing , logistics, marketing, support etc etc )

Then having done all that you will receive a "discovery" order and injunction from selling from a corporate to see if you have infringed their IP .... and it could be over something really "trivial" ... like storing data in NV ram or having a data port. This activity alone will delay you for months and cost you plenty. ( not just money ).

See Carl's laws ( i dont have the ref at the moment ) for good support on my comments.

Oh .. I and did I mention a serious amount of cash on hand ??

My advice is just make stuff for yourself and few friends and dont tell anyone about it


moodz

[Carl-NC]

Patents mostly involve specific methods of doing things, not broad concepts. Methods can be in hardware or software, it doesn't matter. In either case, a patent usually isn't restricted to a single narrow implementation, but covers equivalent implementations.

[mikebg]

Doug, you specify information for MINELAB patents, but are silent on the issue of CHINELAB. :-)

[dougAEGPF]

http://www.google.com/?tbm=pts#hl=en...w=1920&bih=908

dougAEGPF

[brucester]

Hello,

I was wondering if someone could point out the key patents preventing new players from entering the PI MD game?

Like for example, is simply pulsing the coil, amplifying the decay and comparing the result patented?

Or is it individual things such as particular ways of ground balancing or shielding a coil etc?

I contacted the young man over at MIYD who was working on 2 seperate detectors. One that compares decay time with a simple AVR and another that does full DSP on the decay using a 32bit chip.

From what i can tell, he kept it bare bones, completely basic PI. His reply was that he never went commercial because of patent restrictions. What patents would restrict him from selling these detectors?

Surely pulsing a coil is state of the art and analysing the signal is completely software. If the code is original what patents does is breach?

Thanks for a point in the right direction :P