hello how to put in public domain a totally new sustainer aproach , that nobody can

[treco]

Hello i have a friend , a portuguese luthier that developed a totally new aproach to bass and guitar sustainers , he wants to put it in public domain so everybody can use for free , anyone knows how he can share it to public domain so nobody can make a patent with it?
thanks a lot

[big_teee]

If this thread is not about making pickups it shouldn't be here.
T

[treco]

why not? :/ were can i ask?
thanks

[big_teee]

Does it have to do with making Pickups?
It appears to just be a preamp.
Probably belongs in the Guitar Effects, or general Music forum, but not pickup makers.

[David King]

Sustainers, if not pickups share and awful lot in common with them. I see no reason not to include them here as we have done in the past.
Terry have you already seen treco's friend's sustainer? Just curious why you say it appears to be a preamp?

[David King]

There doesn't seem to be the equivalent of the creative commons of the software world in the patent world. Basically if your friend wants to keep someone else from patenting his idea then he needs to patent it himself and then put the patent into the public domain somehow. CC Public Patent License - CC Wiki He can write very broad terms for licensing his idea with no payments involved.

[big_teee]

Everything I searched looked like preamp stuff to me.
Fernandes Sustainer FSK-101 Humbucker Pickup Kit Black | Musician's Friend
This looks like it should be made by EMG.
When you get into preamps, you're talking amplification.
Guitar tech at the least.
But, hey you guys want it on here go for it!
T

[Enzo]

As a disinterested bystander - I don't make or install pickups - I looked up sustainers, not sure what they were. far as I can tell, it isn;t just a compressor turning up the gain as the note decays. Instead it appears to be actively driving the strings by using a pickup as a driver. Not unlike using a loudspeaker as a microphone. If it had been a compressor or some other thing that could stand alone, I might vote it belongs in effects. But really, it appears to be an adjunct to the pickup, so why not?


And I have to say, there are some forums I have been in where they just went overboard trying to corral every post into the "proper" category. They'd go so far as to split threads to handle some tangent that came up. I find it annoying as a participant. No one is asking us to dress different or speak only in Portugese.

[Joe Gwinn]

Hello i have a friend, a Portuguese luthier that developed a totally new approach to bass and guitar sustainers. He wants to put it in public domain so everybody can use for free. [Does] anyone knows how he can share it to public domain so nobody can make a patent with it?

It is sufficient to publish an article explaining the technical details of this new approach, and giving dates and references to the literature as appropriate.

Publication has multiple purposes. First, it tells the world. Second, it legally establishes the date of publication. Third, it gives the patent office a roadmap to related prior art.

Then, nobody can later "invent" the same thing, and even if a patent is granted in error, one can demonstrate prior art, thereby neutering the patent.

One can also submit a copy of the article to the World Patent Office. There is an official way to file such public disclosures, intended to prevent patenting. There may be a fee involved. Call the World Patent Office (or the Portuguese equivalent, and/or a patent attorney) up and ask for the details.

[J M Fahey]

Thanks Joe Gwinn

And FWIW I read the linked article, where , among other things, it states:

How does it work?
The patented Fernandes Sustainer system generates a magnetic field causing the strings of the guitar to vibrate.

Now, anything related to windings on a core magnetically interacting with strings solidly is within what this Forum is about.

The fact that instead of using a dedicated electromagnetic device it uses an existing pickup, does not make it any different in principle.

And using dedicated electronics as part of the system, does not make it conceptually different than , say, active pickups.

But even that is not the main point.

Fact is that "how to put something into public domain" *is* very interesting information and of course, applies to pickup innovations too.



Which I *guess* can be discussed here.

[David King]

A sustainer is two pickups, one senses the strings movement and feeds that signal through a small amp to a second coil of the low impedance variety which drives the string to feed back continuously at whatever frequency it's already ringing. These gizmos have been around for 4 decades and their popularity has ebbed and flowed. The most recent reincarnation was the Moog guitar that came out in 2008 and stuck around for a couple of years. If someone isn't interested or doesn't want to talk about them that's fine, they can duck out of the discussion any time. Ignorance of a topic isn't always the best reason to take unilateral action on behalf of everyone. A little due diligence and an open mind would have been a better first response.
Now in relation to this new invention, it's anybody's guess as to how it works so we might as well hold out for more details while we have everyone's attention.

[Jeeves]

I don't know much of anything about patents, but wouldn't getting one for his design solve these problems?

If he has the patent, doesn't that that stop someone else from taking it from him and registering their own?
If he doesn't do anything to enforce his patent, doesn't that leave everyone free to use it without consequence?

[John_H]

I had a sustainer sent to me for repair once. While it was in the mail, I took the opportunity to study their function so I wouldn't be going into it blind when it arrived. It showed up with a cracked bobbin. Unable to find a replacement, I sent it back. That's as close as I ever got to getting inside of one. It's interesting stuff, and a good topic. I'm anxious to see this.

[Enzo]

I don't know much of anything about patents, but wouldn't getting one for his design solve these problems?

If he has the patent, doesn't that that stop someone else from taking it from him and registering their own?
If he doesn't do anything to enforce his patent, doesn't that leave everyone free to use it without consequence?

Sure, but then you have to go to all the time, trouble, and expense to file for a patent, and even patents expire, public domain is so much simpler and cheaper and forever.

[treco]

thank you all , many usefull information!
I digged a bit on prior art thing , and read many texts were says that one person can patent the idea akready published and it may succeed a lot because patent people may not have access to the publication and the person that grab the idea from that publication does state nothing about the article to patent people so it gets patent granted, and then the person that published for public domain spends a lot of money trying to prove that it is his idea and may not succeed so i will tell my friend to save is idea and when have resources patent it him self, i can tell hes sustainer is kinda cool ,will open many door to people with imagination because of the many functions it have