Using code for patent

Supposing that I make a machine using a temperature sensor with Arduino MEGA 2560. I use the company's code for the temperature sensor in order to make it work with my own code for the rest parts of the machine. If I want to patent the machine I built which uses the temperature sensor's code. Do I need a license for that?

Depends on the license associated with "the company's" code.

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So, either the code is free to use, so I can use to my machine freely. it. Or I write new libraries, new code for the sensor. Right?

Yep pretty much.

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Your topic has been moved to a more suitable location on the forum. Installation and Troubleshooting is not for problems with (nor for advice on) your project :wink: See About the Installation & Troubleshooting category.

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There are lots of different licenses and patents. You don’t normally patent the entirety of a product but some unique aspect of it. Most products consist of lots of parts which are patented elsewhere including code. You need to look up patent law which is extensive and complex. Patenting things costs money and is pointless unless you are prepared to spend more money defending your patent. Will you lawyer up when some Chinese or Far East company copies your product? A common way of doing things is to use the arduino example and have all your products on open licenses which allow anyone to use them but you provide and compete at a reputable level that gets you a significant proportion of the pie without having to defend any lawsuits

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It sounds like you need an IP lawyer.

The questions you are asking are basic enough that it suggests you haven't done much, if any, research. An experienced attorney will write your patent claims in such a manner that they aren't tied to any specific codebase. If you do so, then it would be trivial for someone to get around your patent by making trivial code changes, rendering the patent useless.

Don't patent the code, patent the methods that are embodied by the code.

And then there are the issues raised by Profile - pmagowan - Arduino Forum which I completely agree with.

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As I understand it is very risky for someone to get involved into patents...After all I am simple enthusiast hobbyist...nothing more! I

There is no risk, apart from the fact that it will cost you money, and it is pointless.

I hold four patents, that were paid for by the company I worked for at the time. I doubt if they have made any money from them. But it looks good on your CV.

By the way getting a patent granted and it being able to be defended are two different things. If someone has made a public demonstration of a device you patented before your patent was granted then your patent is made invalid.

Remember patents involves ideas not devices.

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Yes, and only novel ideas.

Can the machine be made with different temperature sensor software? Yes? Then you don't have to include specific references to the software in the patent at all. Other than in general terms,
"whereby the installed computer software reads the temperature and relays it to the..." etc.

Most patents now are like some websites, someone is just camping. In tech, usually that is just to tie up competitors so they have to negotiate for a patent trade or sale, there is no intent to produce or sell at all. It is known as "patent chill".

Contrary to the original purpose of the patent office which was to foster innovation. Oh well.

In practice a patent is useless unless you have a lot of money and team of lawyers behind it.

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Just to understand...I chose a famous manufacturer. Please look here: Frequently Asked Questions under the paragraph: "I see the words 'Open Source Hardware' everywhere on your site. What the heck are you talking about?". Does what mentioned there imply/cover also the software related to the open-source hardware? So, everyone can implement what the site says for open-source hardware also to open-source software related?? So, I buy the Adafruit's "X" sensor and Adafruit provide me via its website its source-code for the sensor. According to the above link am I able to use the source-code to a patent?

Open Source != free to use anyway you wish; rather, there are rights-of-use associated. For example:

adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Bundle is licensed under the ### MIT License
A short and simple permissive license with conditions only requiring preservation of copyright and license notices. Licensed works, modifications, and larger works may be distributed under different terms and without source code.

You cannot patent a copyright.

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Your thinking is seriously flawed unless your use is both innovative and unique; say using a magnetometer to prospect for gold.

Most of Adafruit's sensors, if not all, are available through electronic parts houses and many sensors are licensed by several manufacturers... that is, the underlying tech is not owned, but is licensed by manufacturer for production only.

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I think you're still confused.

Let's ignore software for a moment. Say I build a machine that is a new way of peeling apples. When I built a prototype of my apple peeler, I happened to use a kind of screw that is patented because it it more resistant to the corrosion from apple juice.

If I decide to patent my machine, my patent has nothing at all to do with the patented screws I used. My patent is about what my machine does that is novel to the apple-peeling industry. The screws won't even be mentioned in the patent except as in a manner, e.g., "fixture A is attached to baseplate B using fasteners F1, F2 & F3."

Back to software, think of it for a minute: if you were to base a patent on using a specific software product that I owned the copyright to, you're basically saying that your patent is useless if I decide to not give you a license to my software.

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The normal method is to add a patent citation for the screw patent, to your patent. It is common to include as many as dozens of citations.

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As far as I know you cannot patent a software. So, what the Arduino has inside nobody sees it... Can somebody "extract" the source code of the Arduino and see my source code?

I am not a laywer, all these are too new to me...Sorry for asking too many! :slight_smile:

Your source code is not stored inside an Arduino.
What is stored is the result of compiling your source code. If you then decompile this you will have something that looks nothing like your source code.

But as people have said you don't patent an implement of something you patent the idea behind it. It is that, that needs to be original.

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That's generally done when your patent is building on work from a previous, expired patent. My example was trying to say that the patented screw was incidental to the new work because of convenience, not that it was based on that patent.

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EXAMPLE: The Uinsys Corp. Purchased and merged with many companies to create the UNISYS Corporation. One of those companies held a patent to an algorithm to compress data. The company did not know for years they held the patent.
When they were searching for an algorithm to compress the image of checks taken by their check reader/sorter, someone discovered the company already held a patent for compression, so they used it and began to require licenses from other companies using the algorithm. The name of that particular algorithm escapes me right now.
The actual computer source code did not matter. They implemented it in 68000 assembler and in C that I am aware of.

Your source code can be copyrighted, or can even just include your plan to copyright. Some people have even included a copyright notice in their compiled code, but cannot be enforced.

Both patents and copyright only give you a date and time mark to defend your property. Nothing else! You still have to pay to enforce your claim in courts.

People with patents and copyrights usually immediately sell them to a corporation.

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Oh, true. In that case a citation would not be appropriate.

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