ZapWizards' Chess Project -Submit your own chess pieces

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22707&highlight=truespace

 

Look at the rending, the circuit is beneath each square

 

Unfortunately, you couldn't patent the idea now even if you wanted to

 

Why not?

 

Well, (this is true for patent law in the UK, I assume it's at the very least similar in other countries) publicly disclosing an idea and how it works counts as disclosure.

Disclosure pretty much destroys patent eligibility.

I believe the result of disclosure is that anyone can now legally use the idea and if the person who originally had the idea doesn't like it, well that's just tough.

 

It's good enough for a patent in the US
I looked over the US patent webpage, and it even recommends talking to other about whether your idea is marketable.

I have talked to a few suppliers and have the idea to $100 for electronic components (For 100 units)
That gets it very near ready to patent, and offer to companies.

I already have a 32 cent patent on this
32 cent patent:

Notorized papers, that you seal and mail back to yourself.
The notorization makes an official record of the paper's creation.
And the sealed letter gives it a date.

I would be a millionaire if I could patent all my ideas.
BUT it take a millionaire just to get the freaking patents!!

Plus either way I think AMD already owns my brain, at least that is what the sheet of paper I signed basicly said

 

That's not a patent. What you have there is a copyright, which basically means nobody else can patent the idea (assuming it's not already patented by someone else, of course).

It doesn't mean others are prohibited from exploiting the idea freely.

If a patent application is to be successful, anyone you discuss your idea with must be bound by confidentiality (which I know because I now have several projects either under NDA or heading that way), which can safely be assumed when talking to the likes of patent agents and lawyers.

Unfortunately, a thread on a public discussion board throws confidentiality right out the window.

Sorry if this disappoints anyone, but that's the bones of it.

 

it still doesnt mean Zap cant mass produce it, only he cant have exclusivity in its production.

 

Oh no, of course it doesn't

If he gets the project off the ground, fair play to him. But if successful, how long do you think it would take before a company with more facilities at their disposal comes along with a cheaper model and infinitely more marketing muscle?


I'm just offering the benefits of my experience since it's very important to be aware of these facts before jumping in, to avoid getting burnt

 

All very true bradford... shhhhh

 

You ever seen Vans driving about the place with tubes on the roofracks holding pipes etc...? well, my father "invented" that, he had to go to the cop shop to make sure they were legal before putting them on our vans, someone in the family suggested patenting the idea, so he checked, and there were NO SIMILAR patents at the time, looking at the price of a patent me pa said, pfft, bugger that..



now there are companies producing them..... if only we got something like 10p per unit we'd have a nice income off it!!! DOH!

The moral. - If you think your on to something, patent it! Look beyond the cost, get investors, but remember where there's an investor, there must be a legal

"if I see this invention, I must not try and patent it myself, and if I should, may my fortune be given to the inventor, and may 1000 monkeys spank me 1000 times each, every morning until I die."

type document.

 

Through a cruel twist, by the time your family member suggested looking into patenting, he'd already negated his chances of successfully applying for one.

Such is the convoluted process of patenting

 

I dont like chess but it would still look cool will it be pokeable?

 

I hope that's a typo.

 

i would poke it then grab it and run.... yah patents can be a bish.. also it may take thousands of dollars to get an Idea like that from ur head to store or website. You could also be really screwed if you find in your contract with amd that they own all the work you produce while working for them... happened to a friend of a friend coudltn' patent his copy right his software

 

Zap, let me know when you get the LEDs I sent . And I'd like to see pics others haven't if you could showing them in use please. You already have my email heh

 

I wont get the mail until tommorow.
(I assume you sent it to my work acount)

I will have pictures up the second I proto the circuit.

 

Yes, work..

I look forward to seeing them

 

hi, read this when it was first posted and, yes, it does look as if it will be a nice chess set. But what is different about this set compared to other sets available? Okay, a fancy lighting effect, perhaps the exact same thing hasn't been done, but I'm sure pretty similar things have.

Sorry, if I've missed something but it doesn't seem to do anything new. If you were wanting to be adventurous you should try and make the pieces move automatically, but even that has probably been done...

 

/ranting

Yes, I am sure someone else out there has thought of something along the same lines. (A few even posted that)

While researching this I did find someone who did use hall sensors to tell whether or not a peice was present on a square and light that square. It was for a school competition.

But no one has built it so that it can tell which side the piece belongs on. Have two different colors, and provide fading effect.

Of course it is still chess.

Why do other companies make beer chess sets, bone chess sets, glass chess sets, wood chess sets. BECAUSE variety is good.
No one's every chess set to be the same.

I want to build it because it will look cool, simple as that.

Please go gripe to IBM about spending millions of bucks on a machine that does the same thing!

Sure I could make the peices move automaticly.
A simple electromagent on a X/Y pulley system would do that.
But of course that means more circuitry, a microprocessor, and software. Where is the elegance in that?

Keep it simple and stupid, it will work, look awsome, and YA STILL BE CHESS!

/done ranting...