Invention, Intellectual Property and Incomes

Intellectual Property

I don't believe that creating a patent for every design or project is necessarily a good idea. While patents are a great way to protect your work and secure rights over it, for this particular project, I don't think a patent would prevent it from being copied. An oil diffuser is not a revolutionary idea, but its implementation, like in this project, can be lucrative and add value for consumers and the market. Since this is a course in digital fabrication and hands-on work, I believe my project serves as an example of what can be achieved by properly using digital fabrication tools. I am a big fan of open-source design, and I acknowledge that my design has room for improvement. I would love for people to be inspired by it and to create their own versions with enhancements. So, regarding intellectual property, I think the future of my project lies in continuous improvement and further experimentation with the design and electronics.

LICENSE

The Attribution (CC BY) license is one of the most flexible and permissive Creative Commons licenses and would be perfect for my project since it lets you:

Distribute: Share copies of the original work
Remix: Modify the work, create derivatives, and adapt it
Build upon the work: Use the original work to create new works
Commercial use: Use the work for commercial purposes

This license would serve as a tool to protect my design and work but still let other people use it as inspiration or as a base for a different project, as long as they give credit to me.

Limitations of the CC BY Attribution

Users must give appropriate credit to the original author. This includes citing the author's name, providing a link to the license, and indicating if any changes were made.
Users cannot apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

In order to apply for this type of licence I would have to:

Including a statement such as "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."
Providing a link to the license: CC BY 4.0 License.
Using the Creative Commons logo and icons available on their website.

The licence would look like this

AURA is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Title: "AURA" Author: Andrea Hortega Link: AURA License: [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Modifications: None

Future opportunities

In the future, I would love to create a brand focused on wellness products. I envision building a community on social media, especially Instagram, where I would sell this product and future ones. Additionally, I would share the design process and how I use digital fabrication to my advantage. I believe that fostering this community would have a greater impact than patenting the project, as it would engage and inspire people while promoting the brand.