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I 3d printed this well before 2019... Made in plastic as a prototype heat exchanger designed in openscad. Is there anything I can do, or must I now shelve my

I 3d printed this well before 2019... Made in plastic as a prototype heat exchanger designed in openscad. Is there anything I can do, or must I now shelve my project because I didn't see this patent be filed?

elil17 4y ago
Did you publicly publish your work? E.g. blog post, youtube video, etc. Could be as simple as a single photo or a brief written description of the design. If so, you're good to continue your work. You could even try to help the patent examiner find your work by publishing it and using keywords related to the patent.
d110af5ccf 4y ago
Realistically (not legally) you can continue for personal use. Good luck commercializing though. Even if you published the work previously you'd most likely have an expensive legal battle ahead of you.
beambot 4y ago
A simple Google Image Search for "fractal 3d print heat exchanger" yields ample prior art.
- zardo 4y ago
  It really should be denied simply on the requirement that it not be obvious to a practitioner in the relevant field.
  - defrost 4y ago
    Fractal branching increasing surface area while reducing sub unit cross sections for increased heat exchange efficiency was obvious to practitioners in the field in the 1980s. That's when the Mandelbrot book(s) hit the mainstream in mathematics and engineering following his coining of the word in 1975. As an undergraduate at the time I can attest such ideas were extensively discussed, there are many people with notebooks from the time sketching out notions of practical and impractical applications and further study in multiple dimensions. Relationships between fractal branching, leafs and fluid exchange (be the fluid heat or CO2 or reactants) have been sketched out diagrammatically and analytically ad nauseam in the time since.
TaylorAlexander 4y ago
IANAL but if you published anything, now would be a great time to maybe make a YouTube video showing off any posts you made, just to help build a case. Maybe you don’t need to file a lawsuit but if you use the keywords from the patent in a new video about your previous work then someone else trying to commercialize such a thing could find what you’ve done and use that to file a lawsuit.

elil17 4y ago

Did you publicly publish your work? E.g. blog post, youtube video, etc. Could be as simple as a single photo or a brief written description of the design. If so, you're good to continue your work. You could even try to help the patent examiner find your work by publishing it and using keywords related to the patent.

d110af5ccf 4y ago

Realistically (not legally) you can continue for personal use. Good luck commercializing though. Even if you published the work previously you'd most likely have an expensive legal battle ahead of you.

beambot 4y ago

A simple Google Image Search for "fractal 3d print heat exchanger" yields ample prior art.

zardo 4y ago
It really should be denied simply on the requirement that it not be obvious to a practitioner in the relevant field.
- defrost 4y ago
  Fractal branching increasing surface area while reducing sub unit cross sections for increased heat exchange efficiency was obvious to practitioners in the field in the 1980s. That's when the Mandelbrot book(s) hit the mainstream in mathematics and engineering following his coining of the word in 1975. As an undergraduate at the time I can attest such ideas were extensively discussed, there are many people with notebooks from the time sketching out notions of practical and impractical applications and further study in multiple dimensions. Relationships between fractal branching, leafs and fluid exchange (be the fluid heat or CO2 or reactants) have been sketched out diagrammatically and analytically ad nauseam in the time since.

TaylorAlexander 4y ago

IANAL but if you published anything, now would be a great time to maybe make a YouTube video showing off any posts you made, just to help build a case. Maybe you don’t need to file a lawsuit but if you use the keywords from the patent in a new video about your previous work then someone else trying to commercialize such a thing could find what you’ve done and use that to file a lawsuit.