alt.energy.renewable

"Bob Eld" wrote in message
news:T81xj.12797$Ch6.12034@newssvr11.news.prodigy.net...
>
> "Dan Bloomquist" wrote in message
> news:lgZwj.4984$Sa1.1416@news02.roc.ny...
>> Bob Eld wrote:
>> > wrote in message
>> > news:fq1gqn$fm@acadia.ece.villanova.edu...
>> >> Bob Eld wrote:
>> >>
>> >>>> US code says it's strictly illegal to make even one, for your own
> use,
>> >>>> in your basement.
>> >>> Please site the law that says that.
>> >> It starts with Article 1, section 8 of the US constitution, and
> continues
>> >> through Title 35, Part III, Chapter 28, Section 271, Paragraph (a) of
>> >> the US Code. Subsection (4) of Paragraph (d) says refusing to license
>> >> others, ie "shelving" is OK...
>> >>
>> >> A patent grants a property right to the patent owner. "Trespassing"
>> >> without the owner's permission is illegal.
>> >>
>> >> Nick
>> >>
>> >
>> > Nowhere in any of those documents does it say that it is illegal to
>> > make
>> > even one in your basement. Cite one case where tresspass law has been
>> > applied to patents.
>>
>> In Europe you can freely use patented material for non profit individual
>> use. In the U.S. the patent holder could litigate.
>>
>> > Cite one case where patent grantees have not had to
>> > pursue their rights and claims in the civil courts to gain a remedy for
>> > infringment.
>>
>> Probably won't find one as the cost of litigation is not worth the minor
>> infringement.
>
> Yep, the patent holder could litigate but the cost of litigation prevents
> most trivial cases against minor infrignment. The point is that it is not
> automatic nor is it a matter for criminal law, the district attorney or
> even
> the patent office to uphold a patent. They don't care who infringes on
> whom,
> it's up to the civil courts and only when a suit is filed.
>

And IIRC, if the holder fails to pursue infringement litigation too often,
the courts have sometimes ruled that he's given up his rights to it. So a
small time inventor is 'damned if you do... damed if you don't'. If he
doesn't pursue widely known infringements, he usually can't change his mind
later on when someone like Microsoft or GE decide to start infringing.

daestrom