Bob Cordell's Power amplifier book

Depends a lot on how broadly the claims are written.

Good luck having broad claims at this day and age. I was involved in several patent litigations and have a few funny stories.

You also have to consider work around possibilities and more importantly actual commercial value. Boulder's latest has 25ppm THD @20k and 1000W into 8 Ohms and 10nV/rt-Hz noise, the battleship build quality and reputation spanning years has as much value as a couple of numbers IMO.
 
AX tech editor
Joined 2002
Paid Member
IMHO patents don't really help the individual inventor. Only big companies. There is at least one very big country which even ignore patents.

Toni

One other option is to quickly market your invention and rake in the money before others find out about it. Get out as soon as all the others start to decimate prices.
Often the very best way to get return on your efforts.

Jan
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2012
more options --- you can test the waters by publishing the design and get feedback. you have a year to get the patent applied for after publishing it. Publishing it can help you decide if you want to try for a patent or not.

And, you can license the design for royalty or ??-- patented or not.

-RM
 
more options --- you can test the waters by publishing the design and get feedback. you have a year to get the patent applied for after publishing it. Publishing it can help you decide if you want to try for a patent or not.

And, you can license the design for royalty or ??-- patented or not.

-RM

Which country's patents work like this? In the UK, you can't patent something you've put into the public domain. You have to apply first, then you can publish. Pretty sure the UK isn't unique in it working this way.
 
more options --- you can test the waters by publishing the design and get feedback. you have a year to get the patent applied for after publishing it. Publishing it can help you decide if you want to try for a patent or not.

And, you can license the design for royalty or ??-- patented or not.

-RM

No, first to file is now in effect in the US. This is no option. No patent no protection, anyone that reverse engineers it can use it for free.
 
Last edited:
Disabled Account
Joined 2012
well.... are you going to patent it or not? Otherwise, why mention it? document the design and date it and witness sign it (pref an engineer). At least then no one else can claim it as their own invention first and apply for patent after your date of invention. and if they did, you can show you invented it first and thus null-void their patent.


-RM
 
Last edited:
Administrator
Joined 2004
Paid Member
Watch out for "prior art". There isn't much new under the sun these days and you could get all fired up before discovering that a telephone company already invented what you are working on. Just because they did it with tubes doesn't invalidate the method.

To be honest, unless you have a larger company to back you, a court case could drain all your assets and once out of $$ you could lose anyway. Certain people and companies tend to avoid a large company and look for individuals without a big brother.

All a patent really does is give you the right to sue another party for using your idea. That is effectively it. If they out manufacture you and flood the market, that's the ball game in a very real sense.

-Chris
 
At least then no one else can claim it as their own invention first and apply for patent after your date of invention. and if they did, you can show you invented it first and thus null-void their patent.

We no longer keep notebooks to sign and date because this statement in general is no longer true, you can no longer save a notebook and wait an indefinite time to file. Even your link recommends in the end to not try and and use the limited 12 mo grace period.

Sage advice now is to file a provisional application, it is not that expensive or involved.

Under the First-to-File regime, large corporations with well-established invention disclosure procedures, patent committees and armies of in-house attorneys will always beat a lone inventor in the race to the Patent Office, thus placing small and independent inventors at a severe disadvantage.

Harry is right BTW the grace period was added as some kind of political compromise in the US it does not apply in the rest of the world.

Other countries have patent systems based on the “First-to-File” doctrine, in which the patent is granted to the inventor who is the first to file a patent application, regardless of the date of invention.
 
Scott's correct.

AND

The gold standard for inventor's interested in patents
and protecting their Intellectual Property (IP-not Internet Protocol) rights follows.

Patent It Yourself by David Pressman. Now in its 18th ed.: LINK

Much has changed as I've got 1/2 dozen of the earlier
editions. Much of what we knew has changed.
It used to be file, then change, change, change
your drawings and tweak your invention...and 20 years
after you earned a patent it was protected.

I'm not longer sure, but at some point if it was offered for sale
before the patent was approved you were screwed.

Chris, not entirely true, we can use prior art to benefit our
patent application and Pressman tells us why and demonstrates
how to go about it.

You've got a lawyer who'll do the work. Good for you,
you can save $1,000s just by educating yourself and
making sure your attorney is on the ball. The'll even
be impressed by your knowledge when you discuss the
issues with them.

For the price of the book at $44.95 from what you will learn
you can't go wrong. Too much to pay for it? Go to your
local public library and check it out from them.

Don't feel bad, I've got to buy the new edition also.

So how many patents do I have? None. Why not?
When I did my market analysis I didn't think I'd make
enough money to cover the effort. I reckon I could have
had at least 1/2 dozen vanity patents but I'm a realist.
I have all my logs and inventor note books etc.
I knew I didn't have the Keurig coffee dispenser either.

Similar to advising my friend on a business purchase he
was considering. He gave me the financials to review and
my analysis to him after two minutes was this:

Think about all the effort your going to be putting into
this, the ordering, the returns, dealing with the public,
losses, shipping, theft, damage, etc. The day to day
running this business, that you are going to be tied to
and all the head aches that are going to come of it.

And we are assuming the financials are correct.
So, answer this, are you willing to do all that
is required and only make $8000 for the year?

He told me then that he'd spent days talking with
other people to get their input and I boiled it all
down to him so he could make an answer in two minutes.

Cheers,
 
Last edited:
AX tech editor
Joined 2002
Paid Member
The gold standard for inventor's interested in patents
and protecting their Intellectual Property (IP-not Internet Protocol) rights follows.

Patent It Yourself by David Pressman. Now in its 18th ed.: LINK

Supported here. It's a very good book, worth its money many times over, if only to ground you firmly.

Think about all the effort your going to be putting into
this, the ordering, the returns, dealing with the public,
losses, shipping, theft, damage, etc. The day to day
running this business, that you are going to be tied to
and all the head aches that are going to come of it.

Sounds a lot like Linear Audio ;-)

Jan
 
Could a consensus (if there is such a thing on DIYAudio) to reflect SOTA, power amp of about 100 to 200 watts with a swap-able VFA and CFA frontend be made in to a thread to go along with the book? I am sure a PCB could be offered like the one for the project that OStripper did for DIYAudio before. Just to go along with the book for practical reasons.
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2012
We no longer keep notebooks to sign and date because this statement in general is no longer true, you can no longer save a notebook and wait an indefinite time to file. Even your link recommends in the end to not try and and use the limited 12 mo grace period.

Sage advice now is to file a provisional application, it is not that expensive or involved.

Harry is right BTW the grace period was added as some kind of political compromise in the US it does not apply in the rest of the world.

having your ideas explained to someone knowledgeable in the field signed and dated is still a good idea. Then when there is an argument as to who came first. Even when someone beat you to the patent appl. Good practice and backup if it gets to a court fight. But, provisional as soon as possible is best to hold your place.

However, if you decide that you cannot afford the cost at the time of idea creation, the witnessed doc again can help -- if while making up your mind or saving your Penny's someone else also thinks of it.

The patent cost easily is 5-15K USD. I have several patents granted. Maybe a dozen.

Only one patent ever made me any money and it made me far more than break even after paying the other patent costs. It was a licensing agreement for %-age of net sales. No investment of my own.

A provisional patent and then rush to license it to someone who can use it and make a zillion products using it. Take the percentage royalty.

Or take the Fame route... publish it. Not much money but lasting fame and notoriety from your peers. Deep bows from strangers is priceless.

Now as Mr Wonderful says on Shark Tank. What are you going to do?

THx-RNMarsh
 
Last edited: