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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate I'm not a patent lawyer so I may be off base on what I am about to say. It seems to me that you cannot, for example, patent the idea of two-way DCC communication through the rails. It's just a no-brainer as a development. But you could patent a *method* of two-way communication through the rails. Same with MTH's 1 mph speed control idea. A no-brainer concept. You can't patent general and obvious concepts, if I understand things correctly. But MTH *can* patent their *method* for doing 1 mph speed increments. At least that's how I understand things. [/quote] The biggest problem with patents are that they are being written overly broad. This problem is more of an issue with software patents. The thing with modern electronics like DCC/DCS, they are in reality just a computer. Like your watch or TiVO. There isn't an actual physical process that occurs. There isn't really a method. The 'method' that is claimed is closer to a solution to a mathematical problem. For example, how you add 1 and 1 to get 2. Well, I take one finger, I take a second finger, I add them together. That process is not patentable. But currently, how I might possibly find the last digit when I divide 22 by 7 is. (22/7 = pi = ~3.14, never ending)
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