"Del Cecchi" wrote in message n
--
--John
Make that 17 years.

And do you have the money to fight a patent suit?

Glad somebody caught that. I was wondering if the ghost of Sonny Bono
had been working his
extend-copyright-periods-for-a-million-years-to-protect-Mickey-Mouse
magic on patent law.

Having been on both sides of patent disputes there are a few thoughts:
-- nobody wants to go to court; most disputes are settled out of court
by licensing agreements

-- I don't see the domestic (U.S.A.-centric assumption) market for
dovetail jigs as being all that large so unless the OP really has a
significant improvement (which may itself be patentable) I would
*guess* it's not a pretty market to get into. If OP has a patentable
improvement then license that back to somebody who is already tooled
up for manufacture and has an existing market presence.

-- Certainly for practical purposes, you can copy ANY patented device
or implement any patented idea so long as you don't share your
implementation or make money from it; keep a low profile. If you
violate a patent for a $200 dovetail jig one time for your own use
it's not worth the legal fees to even write a cease-and-desist letter.
I seem to remember there being a fair use clause that may even
explicitly allow this -- but that might not be US patent law. The
original purpose of patent is to provide commercial advantage enough
to cause new products to appear in the marketplace. (Of course now
the purpose is to lock out you competitions business model --- having
nothing to do with providing improved goods.)


hex
-30-