Re: [Harp-L] Patent Protection

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

I remember that Dick and Pierre at some point stated that it was
permissible for individuals to use the tunings for themselves, but not
for harmonica companies to build them. Jimmy as a customizer is halfway
between, and I know he knows Pierre, so perhaps he has permission. I
know that he is both highly thoughtful about alternate tunings and
scrupulous to a fault in giving credit where it is due.

That said, the validity of the patent has been questioned. It purports
to cover a logical method for arriving at harmonica tunings, and among
the examples it cites of tunings that result from that method are
already existing tunings (prior art, to us a patent term), some of
which have been patented before - sometimes more than once. If someone
thought it was actually worthwile to challenge the patent, it might be
interesting. But given that we're 13 or 14 years into the 17-year life
of the patent and no-one has made a viable commercial product from it,
the clock may well wind quietly down.

Winslow

--- Walter Joyce <wtjoyce45@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I'm not a patent lawyer, but is it legal to reproduce the patented
> tuning 
> without the permission of the patent holder?
> 
> I understand that Mr. Gordon may have that permission but I wanted to
> raise 
> the issue.
> 
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