patenting your cases and/or mods...

mr. poopyhead · Post by **mr. poopyhead** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:41 am

do you guys ever think that companies might just come through our gallery section and steal our ideas?

there are SO MANY P180 mods... don't you think it would be easy enough for antec to come in here, take some "inspiration" and produce a P182, P184, P186, and so on and so forth?

what if you guys noticed that some company had blatantly stolen your design or mod? would you have any legal grounds to protect your design? i'm not a patent lawyer so i really don't know. just something i was thinking about... yes, i'm bored at work and it's only 9:41 EST,

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:18 am

Bluefront has come up with more clever designs than most of us, but I canâ€™t see Lian Li stealing his big brass bling wheels for under their cases

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:28 am

mr. poopyhead wrote:do you guys ever think that companies might just come through our gallery section and steal our ideas?

Well, that's how case lighting, drive suspension products, built in windows, LED screens, rounded cables, watercooling and quite a few other things came into the mainstream.

It's not terribly unusual for things that start showing up in case mods to go mainstream in 1-3 years. That being said, I'm not sure how many modders would have the need/inclination/ability to defend a patent claim.

For me, I'd rather not mod some of my cases if the manufacturer just made them how I want, but they don't so I mod.

DanW · Post by **DanW** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:46 am

how about wokring with companies like Antec to make those products? Maybe as an option or a special edition?

bluefront edition

?

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:00 am

I would love it if any case manufacturer "stole" any of my ideas (which aren't patentable because they're too obvious). In particular, it would be great someone made cases with my favored unrestrictive U-turn airflow layout instead of the combination of restrictive front intakes and stupid extra ventilation holes in the rear and/or sides.

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:03 am

If patents exist in case design, they never stood in the way of Thermaltake.

mr. poopyhead · Post by **mr. poopyhead** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:19 am

IsaacKuo wrote:I would love it if any case manufacturer "stole" any of my ideas (which aren't patentable because they're too obvious). In particular, it would be great someone made cases with my favored unrestrictive U-turn airflow layout instead of the combination of restrictive front intakes and stupid extra ventilation holes in the rear and/or sides.

imitation is the highest form of flattery, BUT....

you wouldn't care if someone started making tons of money off YOUR design? i can understand if you want to share your designs with regular people like us as a service to benefit the community, but when a company starts making profit, i would definitely have something to say...

it's like when companies use open source code to make for-profit software... there's just something unsettling about that.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:34 am

I consider my designs too obvious and straightforward for that.

Look at my favorite design, "Diskless Elegance". The case is nothing but a five sided box open in the rear! Air enters the bottom rear, goes up, and exists out the top rear. Come on.

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:27 am

Patents are for processes not designs. The only way they can be for a particular product (e.g. computer case) is if the only way to make the product/make the product function is to employ a unique process. For example, if you came up with a way to make a computer case out of ice that managed to keep itself from melting in day to day use, that might be patentable. If all you've done is take a metal/wood/plastic box and cut some holes in it using readily available tools, chances are that you have employed a process that has long been in existence and is very well known (called prior art in the patent business). Even if you did something very creative like carefully controlling your case material and fan speeds so that the resonances cancel each other out and the thing is virtually silent, that would not be patentable as that is a well understood process that has been previously deployed in a variety of applications including automobile manufacturing.

Now, you may be able to copyright your case. Basically, you would be claiming that it is a sculpture. As a work of art, it would certainly be subject to copyright. The problem is that someone could make something that was functionally identical and nearly physically identical and sell it as long as they could make the case that as a commercial product it would not be naturally associated with your artwork. To prevent this argument, your case would have to be very visually distinct.

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 9:33 am

jessekopelman wrote:Patents are for processes not designs.

Sorry, but that's just plain wrong. You can definitely patent the functional design elements of an invention, regardless of the processes used to create them. "Method of manufacture" is only one subclass of the various types of patent claims available.

Also, there is in fact a specific type of patent called a "design patent." But it's for patenting NON-functional design elements, and probably wouldn't apply in this case.

That said, you're absolutely right that it would be very difficult to get a patent on any of these mods, as they're mostly combinations of known concepts. Any patent examiner would consider them "obvious," and it would be very hard to argue that they're not.

EndoSteel · Post by **EndoSteel** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:04 pm

mr. poopyhead
do you guys ever think that companies might just come through our gallery section and steal our ideas?
I'm sure they do, I've seen too many examples to think it's just a coincidence. The only reason we don't see all of our designs embodied is most of them being not cost effective. As for me, I don't care - everyone knows how chinese R&D works

.

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:13 pm

weren't several apple products ripped off recently? I know there was a Ipod shuffle clone and didn't Aopen make something that looked basically the same as the mac mini?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:46 pm

I am completely certain that any unique computer design or product will be copied in less time than it takes to type up this post. If anyone thinks he can make money designing computer pieces.......think again. I content myself being the first to post pictures and descriptions of a new device. Too many TT's in the world to spend money on a patent.....

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:04 pm

crispyfish wrote:
jessekopelman wrote:Patents are for processes not designs.
Sorry, but that's just plain wrong. You can definitely patent the functional design elements of an invention, regardless of the processes used to create them. "Method of manufacture" is only one subclass of the various types of patent claims available.

Yes, yes, but I didn't want to write a thesis on this topic. By process, I didn't just mean manufacturing process of a thing, but also the functioning of a thing or process of using a thing. But hey, good work on providing some additional info and clarification for those who are interested in the topic.

Mr Evil · Post by **Mr Evil** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 4:34 am

If you don't want people copying your ideas, then why post them on a public forum? Personally, inspiring others is one of the main reasons I ever post any of my stuff on any forum. If someone copies something I've done, then that's great. If that someone is instead a company, then that's great also because it means my idea was good, and hopefully the company in question can bring it to the masses, which will be good for them too. If I was worried about someone else making money from something I thought up instead of me, then I wouldn't be posting here, I would be manufacturing.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 5:40 am

Maybe because, as Bluefront once discovered, that the people here will pester you to death for details until you finally reveal it.

patenting your cases and/or mods...

patenting your cases and/or mods...

Re: patenting your cases and/or mods...