Patents

Indeed!

In the UK, S60 of the Patents Act 1977 deals with infringement of patents, and the answer to the original question is given in subsection 5(a):

(5) An act which, apart from this subsection, would constitute an infringement of a patent for an invention shall not do so if -
(a) it is done privately and for purposes which are not commercial;
(b) it is done for experimental purposes relating to the subject-matter of the invention;
(c) (d) etc [other permissible activities not relevant to this discussion]

Andy

Edit: Sorry; I see this quotation was given by David Littlewood, much earlier in the thread. Interesting to speculate as to whether making replica Dysons in your garage (privately?) and giving one to each of your friends (hardly a commercial purpose) would constitute an infringement. them away spot-on. Would have made a good question in my law exams, had it been invented back then; Sir James is younger than me.  

Edited By Andyf on 03/05/2013 22:13:13

Thanks for the interesting replies, the law is obvious in its statement but I suspect it could get costly arguing the facts (I've noticed that lawyers facts are different to engineering facts!).

Steve (Steamer1915), your experience is interesting - it begs the question about building published project stuff that is based on patented designs? Would that make our magazine complicit by helping the infringement if someone had used a patented design as a basis for their project?

Mark (been busy recently, hence the time gap)

Hi Bogs,

That's very pretty - but not entirely unlike the steinberger system as on my Hohner headless bass, although that is at the bridge end of the guitar.

Like the Steinberger, I imagine teh biggest problem is the inate conservatism of most musicians!

Neil