On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 21:35:46 -0400, krw wrote:

In article ,
says...
On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 17:36:46 -0500, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

John Fields wrote:
On 17 Mar 2007 11:57:20 -0700, "jerry"
wrote:

On Mar 17, 2:16 pm, "jim menning" wrote:
"jerry" wrote in message

oups.com...





Gurus,
I need your help...
I am an amateur triathlete and I'm getting ready for the start of the
triathlon season and I had this problem last year that I'm trying to
solve.
The problem is that during an open-water triathlon swim I need to skip
a stroke every so often to lift my head out of the water and site the
next turn buoy. I usually find myself off course by a few yards and
need to make corrections. This costs me time from being off course
and from skipping a stroke. So, I had this idea to take apart an old
digital camera or picture phone and mount the camera part to the back
of my head and attach the LCD part in front of my goggles.
Sound
Will such a device be illegal in competition?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Not yet!

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But, if it's patented, it'll be illegal for you to build one.


Illegal to sell it, or to profit by using it. But building one for fun?
Don't think so.

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It doesn't matter what you want to build it for, if you don't have
the patent owner's permission it's infringement.

Not true. It can legally be built to learn what is being taught in
the patent and even extend the patent.

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True. Good catch.
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For an overview, go to:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac...l/infringe.htm

and for more detail:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac..._U_S_C_271.htm

Check out the "education" exemption.

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Agreed.

My point, though, was that if the OP copies the patent for practical
use he'll be infringing the patent unless he gets permission to copy
it from the owner of the patent.


--
JF