On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 21:20:44 -0400, krw wrote:

In article ,
says...
John Fields wrote:

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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.

Building one for education (to learn the art being taught in the
patent) is fine. Building one to avoid paying for a widget? Very
doubtful, but who is going to come after you?

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Whether someone is going to come after you or not is beside the
point. The law states that the inventor is entitled to benefit from
his effort in inventing and then disclosing the invention for the
benefit of mankind and, without his permission, copies of the
invention for practical use may not be made during the lifetime of
the patent.

Since the OP knows that the device has been patented, if he copies
it without the permission of the inventor then he's infringed the
patent and denied the inventor income which should have accrued to
him.

There really is no problem here, and if the OP wants to copy the
invention and avoid any heartburn at all, all he has to do is get
permission from the owner of the patent.


--
JF