Trademarks
Copyrights
Patents
Smart swimming pool or hot tub monitor - Abandoned 2018
Under U.S. copyright law, all software in source code or object code except software in the public domain is copyright protected
Philosophy of the GNU Project — Free software means that the software's users have freedom to
Run the program
Study and change the program in source code form
Redistribute exact copies
Distribute modified versions
The GNU General Public License (GPL)
Comparison of free and open-source software licenses
Intellectual Property:
Relating to the Project there are a selection of intellectual properties that are related to, or are similar to this project
Trademarks:
Copyrights
pHin and Waterguru physical designs
Patents
Smart swimming pool or hot tub monitor - Abandoned 2018
These should not affect the project as this is a non profit project for educational purposes. Regarding copyright, there is no intention to share a competitors design or expression. This along with the fact that the relevant patents are abandoned means that there are no concerns about intrusion on others intellectual property.
This project asserts no patents of its own
There exists similar products on the market to our swimming pool monitoring system, mentioned above, called pHin Smart Water Monitor and Water Guru. Our product differentiates between these as follows:
Discrete - Both the pHin Monitor and Water Guru float in the pool as a large device, which is potentially easily disturbed as well as not visually appealing. Our monitoring system will be mounted discretely and will not float independently
Lifespan - Compared to alternatives our system will not require frequent changing of components which is present in both alternatives due to planned obsolescence .
This product does not claim use of any other intellectual property not listed above and all elements of this project are considered “Free use” and are in the public domain.
The licence for this product and all associated software falls under the MIT open source license.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Advantages:
No time limit
Property remains a secret known only to owners
Provides legal protection against others attempting to learn the secret
Disadvantages:
Belongs to owner only if owner can keep it a secret
May be legally reverse engineered
Advantages:
Renewable every 5 years
Unlimited time limit (simply renew)
Provides legal protection
Disadvantages:
Belongs to owner only if it does not become used generically to identify the product type
Advantages:
The Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998 extended terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication,
Disadvantages:
Time limit although lengthy is nevertheless finite; after the copyright protection has expired, the work enters the public domain
Only protects the specific form of expression,
Advantages:
Utility patents now provide 20 years of protection during which time others are excluded from making, selling, or using the invention
Disadvantages:
Nonrenewable