Invention, intellectual property and income

Table of contents

Introduction

The lecture on Invention, Intellectual Property, and Income was one of the more abstract Fab Academy classes, dealing with the issues of creativity, research and development, property rights, income generation and Fab Lab sustainability based on projects and designs either originating in the Fab Lab or the wider Fab Lab network. This assignment describes how I plan to promote my final project to a wider audience, the associated property rights and what sort of benefit will be derived from it.

What's the problem?

In the film SlingShot about noted inventor Dean Kamen, the subject mentions when he gets up in the morning he doesn't ask what invention he is going to create, rather the question is what problems need to be solved. The film deals with the inventor's attempt to design a water purifying system that can be used in developing countries, and so creating a solution for the developing world's greatest health issue.

Invention then is about solving problems and in my case the problem is how to dry firewood quickly without using fossil fuel energy. The solution is a solar kiln which is an enclosure for storing the wood to be dried using the Sun's radiant energy which heats the kiln air space. At this point fans circulate this warm drier air over the wood and expel the moist air through vents to the external environment. Various sensors, temperature and humidity control the drying process ensuring it is completed as efficiently as possible.

Assuming the Solar Kiln project performs as expected it is likely that other people would be interested in this solution to drying firewood so how do I encourage that interest and how can an income be generated from it.

Licensing

Society recognises that someone who invents or creates something should be allowed to benefit from it. In this way innovation and progress across the artistic, cultural and technological spectrum is fostered. Society grants this benefit by allowing the creator to obtain intellectual property rights regarding their creation which can then be used for their benefit. The three main intellectual property rights are:

For the Solar kiln project, I have ruled out using patents because they are expensive to get and maintain and the Solar Kiln project would not qualify as a patentable design because it has been done before. Trademarks are limited to protecting brands and brand names and would not be a suitable for this project because there are no brand property rights associated with it.

Because the Solar Kiln project makes use of Fab Lab design and manufacturing processes and adds control electronics to improve the kiln drying effect I have decided that copyright represents the best way to protect and publicise this project. Copyright assigns property rights of the design - CAD, manufacturing processes and software - to the creator and allows these design items to be made public with the assurance the design rights will be protected.

Copyright grants legal rights to the author of a creative work upon creation of the work. If I compose a piece of music, write a poem, draw a picture, devise a software algorithm, design an electronic circuit or mechanical apparatus any intellectual property rights associated with the creative work are automatically assigned to me. Often there does not have to be any formal registration to assign copyright and the assigned legal rights last the lifetime of the author plus a time period of between 50 to 100 years: varies across different national jurisdictions. These rights give the author exclusivity over how the work can be distributed, copied, publicised, performed, modified or improved and also require that the work be properly attributed by identifying the author whenever the work is used. Before making use of a copyrighted work permission needs to be obtained from the author and this may involve the payment of license fees or royalties every time the work is used.

There are limitations and exceptions to copyright which seek to balance the author's rights with that of the user. The most oft cited user right is fair use which allows, in limited circumstance, the original work to be used without the copyright owner's permission. The limited circumstance can involve copying parts of the work for educational purposes, reviewing or commenting on the work which may involve including parts of the copyright work in the review, or transformative work where the original is used as the basis of a different creative work, for example, a parody of the original.

With the previously described copyright the original creator generates an income from the copyrighted work by charging royalties or licensing fees to anyone wishing to use the work. I do not think this is the way to go for a Fab Lab project because Fab Labs adopt a knowledge sharing model where the creativity of one lab or labs is made available to other labs at no cost or restrictions other than the other labs will do the same. At the same time, I would like to protect my work so that it will be attributed to me and that someone cannot use my freely shared worked to then create a work that they then copyright under the standard copyright model. To that end I have chosen the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License.

The CC Attribution 4.0 license, when applied by the author of copyrighted material, allows anyone to use and share the copyrighted material without having to pay royalties or fees. It also requires that if modifications are made and shared that the terms and conditions of the CC Attribution 4.0 license apply and it asks that where applicable and practicable the original creators of the work are attributed. By bringing the Solar Kiln project under the terms and conditions of CC Attribution 4.0 I have relinquished my rights under copyright to gain a material benefit, monetary or otherwise from my project. This raises the question as to how the Solar Kiln can generate an income if the intellectual property associated with it is freely given away.

Income generation

There are a number of income generating options available for an open source design. One is to base a service or add enhancements on the open source design which is what some companies do with regard to Linux where commercial companies such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux package the open source Linux software with additional software they provide and charge for. Other companies build equipment from open source designs and charge for the equipment or else they offer component kits to let the purchaser build the equipment themselves. This latter option is the route I will take for the Solar Kiln. In order to make some money from this project I propose to offer a kit of parts that will allow others to easily make the Solar Kiln. There will be various kit options which are listed below:

I would hope that in making the Solar Kiln design effectively open source that others will add improvements to the design and these improvements would be built into the Solar Kiln kits making it a better product and more likely for people to buy it.

Final Project Slide and video