Quote:
Originally posted by dd74
For example, fuzzily, I remember about 10 or 15 yrs. ago, a man sued either GM or it was the big three collectively, for "stealing" his invention of the intermittant windshield wiper.
|
And he won. They had to pay him royalties.
The difference is that he went to them with a developed prototype and they turned it down. You patent specific things not ideas. You can patent a specific perpetual motion machine design not the idea for a perpetual motion machine. Your idea and patent for the perpetual motion machine does not mean that you own the rights for all perpetual motion machine designs (and their patents) now and forever.