Invention & Intellectual Property

As I consider how the world might use my final project, I think about two things... 1) do I want to one day commercialize my design, and 2) what liability do I wish to bear whether I monotize my design or not.

To the first point, I am not particularly motivated by the idea of productizing this design to earn money. Nor am I bothered by the notion that someone else might. The only thing I'd prefer is that some form of credit be given back to me.

To the second point, given that I am quite risk averse, and that I've designed a product that is intended for use by small children, I would choose a license that exempts me from any and all liability.

With these factors in mind, I have chosen a Creative Commons "Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA" license for my design. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.

I encourage you to read more about the License Deed and the Legal Code .

Bearing all of this in mind, I suppose it is important that other people have access to this design - so that children might have an opportunity to enjoy it and adults (young and old) might find it inspirational. I'll pursue two courses of action.

1) I will bring Color Pegs with me when I visit my family members and have their young children play with the toy. I will ask for feedback from the children as well as the parents to see how I might evolve the design over time. I've sited two safety concerns about the design in my Final Project page, and I'm curious if other's also site these as a concern.

2) I will review this design with my colleagues and share it with a broader group of engineers and designers each time I travel to present on behalf of SOLIDWORKS. I'll aim to inspire others as I explain my design process and how the toy was constructed. I'll collect suggestions for improvements to the design and consider integrating them into a second genreation.

Perhaps I'll aslo pursue a third track... To listen to my inner voice and evolve the design to include the safety measures I described as well as to add sound and a software component to the play profile!