Model Forum / General / Railroads / June 2008

In article <485d1559$0$25620$9a6e19ea@news.newshosting.com>,
Wolf Kirchmeir  <ElLoboViejo@ruddy.moss> wrote:

You should think carefully about whether to inform people about
patents.  It is often better for them to remain ignorant.  In
particular,
* An individual building a home made setup is unlikely to be at
  real risk of a lawsuit.
* US patent law makes an infringer much more liable if they knew
  about the patent at the time of the infringement.
* Often it is better to infringe and hope the patentholder ignores
  you but if you have been publicly told about the patent then
  this is much riskier.

The only reason why someone might want to be told about a patent is
that they might prefer to choose an alternative design to avoid risk
of a lawsuit.

So if you do choose to inform the potential infringer about the
patent, you should do so privately rather than publicly and preferably
without leaving an audit trail, and you should reassure the potential
infringer that you're not associated with the patentholder and are
giving what is intended to be a helpful tip-off rather than a threat
and won't mention your warning in public.

If the patented design is proposed for use in some kind of standard,
then the situation is quite different and the people adopting the
standard definitely need to know about it.  Serious standards bodies
will have a process for notifying them.