On Tue, Feb 08, 2005 at 10:38:35AM -0800, Simon Van Leeuwen wrote: | Apparent(!) patent infringement is what Lockheed Martin (the example in the | original thread) is using to thwart those who wish to offer radio control | models, AND static (plastic) models that look similar to what they built (like | the F-104, U2, etc).
Are you sure it's patents? _Any_ patents on the F-104 and U2 would have expired by now. After all, patents are only good for 20 years, and both the U2 and the F-104 were created in the 50s. Any copyrights may have expired as well, though the specifics would depend on exactly what part of the law applied -- for example, does producing a plane count as `publishing with notice'? (Of course, there's the question about it being covered by copyright at all.) http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm Gives a nice summary, but doesn't answer the question. | Tom was gracious enough to point out the significant differences between | copyright and patent, go read his email too. I did too, and mentioned trademarks as well. This is a nice table -- http://www.patent-faq.com/types.htm that talks about the various types of protection. Whatever LM thinks they have, it's got to be in here somewhere. If somebody were to get a reasonably good IP lawyer and fight LM on this, I suspect that they could actually win. Of course, that good IP lawyer I was talking aobut would probably have a better idea of the chances than I do. | If readers projected just a smiggen of such wasted energy towards | the appropriate targets (like bad government, Lockheed Martin) as | they do towards fellow posters, we would be living in Valhalla... Isn't Valhalla the place where the fight all day long and get resurrected each morning so they can fight again? In any event, there's not much energy involved in online flaming. Try to translate that to real world money, and you could probably buy about six minutes of a lawyer's time. Ob Soaring related: Unfortunately, Austin, TX weather has not been conducive to soaring lately. Cloudy, drippy and not even windy. A few people went slope soaring last saturday, but I didn't even think it was windy enough to skip out on work for it (or I would have ... the DTs are starting up. Flying with a motor takes the edge off, but the weather hasn't even been good for that ...) -- Doug McLaren, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sometimes paranoia is just a heightened state of awareness... RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
