4 ms·

Unfortunately, I know from working on my own smarthome project that the "turn lights on or off based on location" is patented and secured already.

• Wistar 14y ago
  I think Color Kinetics has locked up almost everything useful with RGB LED arrays.
  • dakrisht 14y ago
    I'm assuming the LIFX did their due-diligence and attained "freedom to operate" before undergoing this venture - or is "assumption the mother of all f-ups"?
    • sitharus 14y ago
      I prefer 'assume makes an ass of u and me'.
      • marknutter 14y ago
        I've never understood why it makes an ass out of the "me" in that context. I can only imagine scenarios in which the person doing the assuming is making an ass out of themselves, not where their assuming is making an ass out of other people.
        • nitrogen 14y ago
          Some people simply respond more strongly to clever wordplay (Ooh look! It's the same letters!) than to sound reasoning.
        • sitharus 14y ago
          Because assumptions generally make fools of both sides - you'll assume that someone will tell you and they'll assume that you knew.
    • ErikHuisman 14y ago
      They are clearly using a Philips led lightbulb as a base. Maybe this kickstarter project is in conjunction with Philips.
    • ChuckMcM 14y ago
      Strangely most people who come up with these sorts of ideas independently usually operate with one of two perspectives: 1) I know I thought of this idea so I've got a right to use it. 2) This idea is pretty obvious, it just hasn't had anyone willing to implement it. Both of which give the implementer a false sense of security. People who've done this once or twice and been hit on the head by the stupid patent hammer, will look around to see if anyone has done something similar, especially 15 - 20 years ago, and if they can create a credible path to their idea which doesn't involve things that are patented. Then they file a provisional patent to be sure they don't get stomped on.
      • pbhjpbhj 14y ago
        When I saw http://www.smarthome.com/2672-222/INSTEON-LED-Bulb/p.aspx http://www.smarthome.com/2672-222/INSTEON-LED-Bulb/p.aspx up-thread I wondered immediately whether the ribs were functional as they otherwise might be infringing on a design patent for the bulb, looks very similar to me. If there are patents on the Insteon implementation seems highly likely they'd be generalised to independent wifi networked devices. Looks like the Insteon needs a controller but you can have 3 smartphone controlled lights (3x$30 + $99 controller) using their system now for the price of the $196 pledge (which gives you 4 bulbs). Doesn't mean that it's not worthwhile, just that there may be roadblocks ahead.
        • ChuckMcM 14y ago
          Wow, that light looks very similar, I wondered if there was a design patent so I just did an 'Insteon' search on the USPTO database [1]. Could be a challenge ahead [2]. [1] http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=Insteon&FIELD1=&co1=AND&TERM2=&FIELD2=&d=PTXT http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec... [2] http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=25&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=Insteon&OS=Insteon&RS=Insteon http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec...
          • deleted 14y ago
            [deleted]
• hamey 14y ago
  Which patents?