Patents

Built a scanner? Started to build a scanner? Record your progress here. Doesn't need to be a whole scanner - triggers and other parts are fine. Commercial scanners are fine too.

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Beni
Posts: 3
Joined: 29 Oct 2019, 14:11
Number of books owned: 0
Country: Israel

Patents

Post by Beni »

Hi folks,

I'm currently designing a couple of book scanners. After 7 years of running a prestigious Digitization studio working hand in hand with our National Library and having wide exposure to many of the top systems in the market I know what I like, what I don't like, what I want and what traps to avoid from the experience of digitizing millions of pages. I've also come away with the conclusion that practically all of the current commercial solutions are wildly over priced for what they provide. The design is far from overly complex, the parts cheap (perhaps with the exception of one piece glass V plates) and I don't think the accompanying software solutions begin to justify the pricing.

Question, is the 'V platen / glass V plate / 2 camera' concept patented? Everyone is using practically the same system concept with slight tweaks but is there someone who invented it and holds the patents? Or is the overall concept so simplistic that there aren't any problems designing a system based on this concept? Pick any company making book scanners and they've all jumped on the two camera V plate system bandwagon.

I'm afraid I have no idea about this kind of thing and can't begin to afford patent law lawyers! For the amount they would cost I might as well buy the Rolls Royce option for a Digitization studio - https://dtculturalheritage.com/dt-bc100/ Or this one that our National Library just bought - https://www.i2s.fr/en/product/copibook-v-shape :D :D :D
BillGill
Posts: 139
Joined: 18 Dec 2016, 17:13
E-book readers owned: Calibre, FBReader
Number of books owned: 7000
Country: USA

Re: Patents

Post by BillGill »

I don't know much about patent law, particularly in Israel. However, I will make a couple of observations. If anybody has patented the V platen configuration I don't think they can enforce it. It has been too widely used by too many people and if it was patented the patent owners have not enforced it. That is one thing about patent infringements. As I understand it the owner of the patent is required to jump on anybody who uses it. That is the same way that Disney jumps on anybody who uses one of their characters. They seem to be capricious, but it is a matter of keeping their copyrights active. And of course patents have a limited life span. If the patent is too old it might have expired.

The main thing is that I wouldn't worry about it, unless Israel's patent law is much different from the USA.

Bill
Beni
Posts: 3
Joined: 29 Oct 2019, 14:11
Number of books owned: 0
Country: Israel

Re: Patents

Post by Beni »

BillGill wrote: 30 Oct 2019, 09:42 I don't know much about patent law, particularly in Israel. However, I will make a couple of observations. If anybody has patented the V platen configuration I don't think they can enforce it. It has been too widely used by too many people and if it was patented the patent owners have not enforced it. That is one thing about patent infringements. As I understand it the owner of the patent is required to jump on anybody who uses it. That is the same way that Disney jumps on anybody who uses one of their characters. They seem to be capricious, but it is a matter of keeping their copyrights active. And of course patents have a limited life span. If the patent is too old it might have expired.

The main thing is that I wouldn't worry about it, unless Israel's patent law is much different from the USA.

Bill
Thanks, to be honest I've no idea of local patent laws and how or where international patents are applied. Like yourself it seems strange that so many companies are making what is practically the same concept with only minor tweaks if the concept was patented.
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