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> You want to build an X, you work out a deal with UW's patent office and they give you the information. AFAIK, the US patent law says that you can receive a t
by ta0967 12y ago
> You want to build an X, you work out a deal with UW's patent office and they give you the information.
AFAIK, the US patent law says that you can receive a time-limited monopoly for your invention in exchange for describing it in enough detail that others can reproduce your invention. if the patent matter is only reproducible using further information excluded from the patent description then the patent is invalid, IIUC.
- jff 12y agoGood point. So rather than saying "we have a totes sweet fusion reactor design, if you pay us we'll show you the schematics", UW publishes it to the world and if somebody thinks it looks good, they pay UW some money to use the design outlined in the patent, which is theoretically sufficient to reproduce the reactor.