Hello Brooke, I was surprised to see so many recent sundial patents on your page. I always figured that the sundial was had been around so long that it would be hard or needless to patent one. I can see a patent on something like Daniel Wenger's very unique sundial, but some of the ones I saw listed did not really seem unique enough to warrant/earn patent protection. Perhaps I need to look closer.
I am currently working on some fairly unique sundial concepts, but figured that they were out of the realm of patenting, since they use time honored technology and math that has been around for centuries. They are however unique from the standpoint of design/configuration/look. I am a professional product designer and I have come up with several unrelated concepts that were patented by clients, and so I know a little about the process and criteria. But now I am wondering if I should worry about the whole patent thing with regards to my new sundial concepts. Usually I am of the mind that if someone wants to bad enough they will find a way around most patents. I used to work for a large corporation and they had two librarians whose job it was to sift through all patent grants etc. to see if they could find anything related to any of the companies product lines. They provided us in the design department with a periodic booklet of these concepts and related drawings, so that they might inspire our own ideas. We had one designer who would use it as a kind of cheat sheet to springboard from, manipulating and twisting just enough to get by legally. While it is good to be aware of what has been done, I do not really take the time to worry about patenting my ideas because there are so many unimaginative sharks out there just like him, casting the net and seeing what can be gleaned from other people's ideas. Thanks for the posting about the patents. I see that I have some research to do, if nothing else, I guess that I better check to see if I am inadvertently infringing on someone else's claim. Jim Tallman Sr. Designer FX Studios 513.829.1888
