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How can I get info if device is legal or not in US?

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ebastler:

--- Quote from: jonpaul on May 09, 2023, 07:38:20 am ---A US patent lasts 17..20 years (changed in 2017 America Invents Act)

--- End quote ---

I believe the term change from "17 years from grant date" to "20 years from filing date" was already made in 1995 in the US, well before the "America Invents Act".

The AIA implemented some other harmonizations with international patent law, notably including the "first to file" rule for defining priority. (It was "first to invent" before in the US.) And it did so in 2011, not 2017, right?

jwet:
Just sell your thing and have fun.  Patents are a poorly understood mess.  Making Pogo pin download/ISP cables is somewhat obvious and not patentable and certainly not defendable. I've made things like this in the 1990's that I shipped to customers- it was for firmware updates on a little gadget and there aren't many ways to accomplish it.  If you can make these and people want to buy them, go for it and have a ball.  If anyone comes after you, which is EXTREMELY unlikely, just stop selling them.  Good luck.

Psi:

--- Quote from: jonpaul on May 09, 2023, 06:32:55 am ---Thus to determine if  a patent is  "enforcable" is not a cheap or simple question.....

--- End quote ---

This is true, but often you find a patent that is so simple and that so many other companies are violating that it's pretty fair to assume its not enforceable.

tooki:

--- Quote from: Jeroen3 on May 09, 2023, 05:44:39 am ---
--- Quote from: Colt45 on May 09, 2023, 05:16:13 am ---god, I hope you can't patent pin spacing...

--- End quote ---
"A connector device for maintaining a desired spatial relationship for spatially and securely connecting to a platform, such as a circuit board, in an efficient manner."
https://patents.google.com/patent/US7878834B2/en?oq=+7%2c878%2c834+
https://patents.google.com/patent/US8057248B1/en?oq=8%2c057%2c248

Apparently yes.

--- End quote ---
As an aside, these excerpts from the second patent above is a prime example of why most patent filings make me angry:


--- Quote --- wherein said plurality of sockets are fixed to said supporting element and wherein said plurality of sockets align with said plurality of alignment holes of said printed circuit board for receiving said plurality of alignment members of said connector device therein so that said printed circuit board is positioned between said body of said connector device and said retention device to temporarily or permanently retain said one or more contact elements of said connector device in contact with said one or more contact pads of said printed circuit board.



wherein said plurality of alignment members extend through said plurality of alignment holes of said printed circuit board from said first surface and past said second surface of said printed circuit board and wherein said one or more contact pins engage said one more contact pads of said printed circuit board;
--- End quote ---

These models of obfuscation serve only to word things so obtusely as to require a patent lawyer to reliably decode them.

As a former professional technical writer, I know it is possible to explain things in clear, unambiguous language that is precise while still being legible.

Patent language is, as I see it, rent seeking from patent lawyers, and a barrier to patent litigation for patent trolls, since a layperson isn’t going to risk going to court over it.

tooki:

--- Quote from: Siwastaja on May 09, 2023, 07:33:26 am ---Everything is patented. Microsoft has patent on double clicking. Better question is, is the patent enforceable? But even this is still the wrong question - given enough money and good enough lawyers, even a totally ridiculous case can be made to destroy you if they so wish.

--- End quote ---
Well, they had one to be more exact; it has since expired.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US6727830B2/en

Though I still think it’s a patent that should never have been granted, it wasn’t on the concept of double-clicking in general. It was on using button press patterns (short press, long press, double press, etc) on application launch buttons on mobile devices. So if the application launch button wasn’t on a mobile device, it wouldn’t apply, nor would it apply to non-application-launcher buttons on mobile devices, like volume or power buttons. They basically wanted to patent that, for example, the hardware email button on a PDA would launch the app when pressed one way, maybe go directly to a new email when pressed another way, and perhaps previews the latest message when pressed another way.

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