Subject:
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Re: Train building contest
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.build, lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Thu, 15 Feb 2001 21:59:47 GMT
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Viewed:
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54 times
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> > Not in this case. The patent expired in 1922, so it is not a problem to
> > blatently rip off the ideas.
>
> My example was hypothetical. I figured it was a pretty good bet the
> patents had expired. It was just an example of something where I
> strongly suspect that there were patents which would have been
> applicable to models.
The reason why I knew about that one is that Willimette built rip offs of
Shay's (called the West Coast Shay) starting in 22. Most anything to do with
steam has passed the 50 year mark on the patents, and a lot of it has passed
the 70 year (expiry) mark on them. The Doble stuff has expired (which means,
if someone wants to build Doble motor cars, they can without infringing on the
patents). Diesels are kind of harder...I know the patents on the basic engine
are expired, but not on a lot of the more recent ideas (although, a lot of the
more recent "innovations" are actually quite old in origin, and have also
passed into history.) I don't think that there is any problem with generating
a mechanical likness of a object, as long as you are not claiming that a (1:1)
scale object is something it is not (for example, I think you would have
problems if you built a SD90, and called it a SD90 if it looked like one, and
you wern't GMDD). I really cannot see Matchbox paying to be able to make a 91
corvette Stingray or so on.
James
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Train building contest
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| (...) My example was hypothetical. I figured it was a pretty good bet the patents had expired. It was just an example of something where I strongly suspect that there were patents which would have been applicable to models. (24 years ago, 15-Feb-01, to lugnet.build, lugnet.trains)
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