NEC-LIST: Antenna patents

I disagree with most of the comments about patents. I have personally been
granted a number of patents, most of which I was able to financially benefit
from (beyond the legal fees.) In my experience, most people do not understand the
subtleties of our patent system. The common belief is that every idea with a
bit of ingenuity involved is patent worthy. In fact, the real criterion for
patentability is 'novelty', a somewhat more intricate concept.

With regard to antennas in particular, my view of the situation is as
follows. Most antenna designs to date consist of discrete elements of linear
conductor, which are somehow excited by an RF source(s). The essence of the design is
to produce specific phase/magnitudes of the currents in each of these, which
combine to produce the desired far-field by EM induction. This basic idea is
what I would call the novel feature of these antennas. There are obviously an
infinite number of ways of doing this, so does that mean that every one of these
is a unique "patentable' idea? How much does one prospective inventor have to
change the number of elements, their vector currents, and relative sizes
before it becomes truly novel?

I also contend that the rhombic patents were unwarranted, for the reasons
just stated. It is no news that the patent examiners periodically grant patents
which are later found invalid, mainly because the concept of novelty is fuzzy.
I was personally involved in such a case, where a patent had been granted for
an idea that was later shown to lack novelty ( in fact, there existed
well-known prior art.) But trying to get that patent overturned (there is a formal
procedure for this within the system) was a daunting legal proposition, weighted
heavily in favor of the original patentee.

If you want or expect a patent on an antenna, you will have to truly invent a
novel way of generating an RF field that is not just another possible
combination of linear current elements.

Eric von Valtier K8LV

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