Lawyers of HN, why would using the same method as in the patent pose a legal problem for a DIY project? To my understanding, he would not be able to commercialize it until expiration. Maybe he wouldn't even be able to exchange that one build. But he should still be able to build it and document the build. After all, said information is already public in the published patent. That is very much the point of the existence of the patent.
I thought supposedly the whole point of patents was to make the information regarding an invention available in exchange for a time limited monopoly on profiting from said invention, not to make the information radioactive for the period.
Similarly, to how some codecs are patent encumbered yet we still have open source implementations of said codecs.
In practice however, many patents never brought riches to the inventor and instead stalled progress for the duration.
Is this project just a case of the chilling effect of patents?
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 18.0 ms ] threadI thought supposedly the whole point of patents was to make the information regarding an invention available in exchange for a time limited monopoly on profiting from said invention, not to make the information radioactive for the period.
Similarly, to how some codecs are patent encumbered yet we still have open source implementations of said codecs.
In practice however, many patents never brought riches to the inventor and instead stalled progress for the duration.
Is this project just a case of the chilling effect of patents?