Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Patent
Whereas copyright focuses on artistic works,
patents
focus on “useful articles,” which are
For most potential open source hardware projects, “things that do stuff” will form the heart
of the project. For that reason, it is likely that most of the important parts of the project fall
within the scope of patent law, not copyright law.
1
.
In addition to traditional “utility” patents, you can get design patents, which are something of a
middle ground between a copyright and a patent. They protect nonfunctional parts of objects, but
only for 14 years.
Table 3.2
Patent Tip Sheet
Unlike with copyright, just because something is protectable by patent does not mean
that it will ever actually be protected by patent. To obtain a patent you need to apply for
it—a process that costs both time and money. In addition to filling out paperwork, you
will need to prove that the thing that you are trying to patent is novel, meaning it is actu-
ally new in the world.
If and when you make it through the patent application process and are granted a pat-
ent, that patent will last for 20 years. While 20 years is a long time, it is significantly
shorter than a copyright's protection (the creator's lifetime plus 70 years).
Finally, patent law and copyright law are mutually exclusive. In other words,
something either fits within the scope of patent law
or
it fits within the scope of copyright
law. In cases where an object seems to combine both creative and functional parts, the law
does its best to separate the two elements out. The goal of this process is to avoid giving
copyright protection to functional items outside of its traditional scope.
