Has the Pass Labs patent for Aleph 5 expired?

[lgreen]

Originally posted by EUVL
25 years, as far as I know.

And only valid in the country of application, i.e. in the USA in case of the patent for the Aleph current source.

PS I do not support stealing intellectual properties for commercial gains, but I also want to mention what the law says. One year after the inventor applied for a patent in a certain country, he has the right to apply for the same worldwide. If he chooses not to do so, he has no protection in those other countries. The company I work for applies for key patents in up to 8 key countries for each important invention. Costs a lot of money, but there is no other way round.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...701#post654701
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...005#post654005

Patrick

In the old days term of a US patent was 17 years from the date it was issued.

Now, for all patents filed after June 8, 1995, the term is 20 years from the date it was filed.

Exception for patents in force when the law was changed- For patents in force on or before June 8, 1995 you get the longer of the the 20 years from filing or 17 from issuance.

[Nelson Pass]

I am informed that Ebay has removed the listing after receiving
communication from our attorney.

[Netlist]

Hmm...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Power-Amplifier-...QQcmdZViewItem

Edit: They are gone indeed, this one just slipped trough.

Great result so far.

/Hugo

[uli]

Originally posted by lgreen


Now, for all patents filed after June 8, 1995, the term is 20 years from the date it was filed.

Exception for patents in force when the law was changed- For patents in force on or before June 8, 1995 you get the longer of the the 20 years from filing or 17 from issuance.

Patents are valid as long as you are willing to pay the fees for them - up to maximum 20 years from filing date and only valid in the country where they were filed.

As the yearly amount increases, nearly nobody (except pharma) holds the patent that long.

In fact there exists no such thing like "world patent"!

You have to file it in each country except the EU, where a European Patent Office in Munich (EPO) exists.

Uli

[phase_accurate]

You have to file it in each country except the EU, where a European Patent Office in Munich (EPO) exists.

But they won't issue something like a European patent either - they will just do the work for you to apply for a patent in every country that is a member of the European patent office.

Regards

Charles

[uli]

Thats right, reason is that there is no EU law for patents, that said, every country has different legal criteria for issueing patents.

Uli

[markd514]

I am not knocking anybody, but most of the high end circuits within the past 20 years that have been patented, where already done or patented 40 or more years ago. I searched extensively and have found other patents on current source amplifiers, especially a few that where fet based. I would think that patents are nice, but a REAL pain to defend. I would think that if a circuit is somehow different to a certain percentage, but still incorporates some of these commonly know patented techniques, then it would be nearly impossible to make a case. Unless of course a DIY'er used the exactly same circuit and same values, then it would be a complete copy, and that is not good.

[kzim229]

Patent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[markd514]

"In implementation, patents have been criticized for being granted on already-known inventions"
This is widely well known.

[d to the g]

diygene has now graduated to diyaudio.com sponsor status?

too bad he's still trading in cloned goods. (accuphase / levinson / etc...)