I believe that the only thing that is "copyrighted" is the actual printed version that is sold by a company that has re-created (drawn from scratch) a Smith chart. anyone who can "draw one from scratch" is apparently allowed to do so. there does NOT seem to be any enforcement of a copyright on the CONCEPT (or even reproduction) of the Smith chart. R637239 (1976) & R637240 (1976)Īpparently this is for something (2 'forms' of the chart) that Smith published in 1976.
Item 2 OF 2 V2503 P371 THRU 377 (COHD)TITLE: Smith chart, impedance or admittance coordinates.
Party 1: Anita Smith, executrix of the Estate of Phillip H.
Looking at the government's copyright web-site (loc.gov) and searching for "Smith Chart" came-up with a couple of hits: the document uses numerous Smith charts itself, but never has any statement that the charts are "used with permission from Analog Instruments" or "courtesy of Analog Instruments". Which states "The Smith (R) chart is copyrighted by Analog Instruments Company, New Providence, NJ 07974". Ironically, there is a document available at: In fact, one of my ARRL-produced books publishes a Smith chart that includes the name "Analog Instruments" (the company that is run by the widow of PH Smith, and which has the 'trademark' rights) in the title, but has no copyright mark anywhere on the page. So, it sounds to me that unless you are electronicially or mechanically reproducing the Smith chart EXACTLY as it was when he 1st published it, you are not violating the copyright.Īs I browse-around the I've browsed thru many of my technical books containing Smith Charts, and NONE of them give any indication of a copyright. So facts given on one website my be used on another. Only the way in which they are expressed is covered by that area of the law. Also note that facts, procedures, concepts and ideas cannot be protected by copyright. it MUST be public domain or they couldn't get away with it all these years.Ĭopyright laws do not protect Titles of Publications, formats, logo, layouts, slogans or typography these items may be protected under trademarks. there is certainly precedence of lots of other analysis tools, books, magazine articles, etc. create the tool and see if anyone says anything. There is an Excel-based Smith chart available at: Sounds about as enforceable as the GIF image format I don't know what a "trademark" means in the case of regenerating a set of lines/arcs in some mathematically prescribed manner which EVERYONE on the planet does freely on a daily basis. Printed Smith Charts are available from Analog Instruments Company. The Smith Charts shown in this web site are proprietary to Analog Instruments Company and reproduction thereof without express written permission is prohibited. Please note that "Smith" is a registered trademark of Analog Instruments Company of New Providence, NJ 07974. Actually, Smith may not have been the first inventor of this tool - a Japanese engineer named Kurakawa independently created a similar chart about a year before Smith. The Smith Chart was originally created many years ago as an RF engineering aid by Phillip Smith of RCA. Leave it to lawyers to muck-up the wording into an non-understandable convolution of rules that even Mathcad couldn't solve Or are we supposed to use 75 (to 95) years since date of publication? So, I guess the real questions that would need to be answered are:Ģ) If so, was it as an individual or a corporate entity? He did it while working at RCA, so, I suspect 'corporate'.ģ) When did Smith die (then add 50 years), Under this act, no additional works made in 1923 or after, and that were still in copyright in 1998, will enter the public domain until 2019. This effectively 'froze' the advancement date of the public domain in the United States for works covered by the older fixed term copyright rules. It also affected works still under copyright that were published prior to this date, increasing their term of protection by 20 years as well.
#Colored smith chart plus
After the act, copyrights lasted the life of the author, plus seventy years in the case of individual works, or 75 to 95 years in the case of works of corporate authorship and works first published before January 1, 1978. Before the act, copyrights lasted for the life of the author plus fifty years. In the United States, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended the duration of U.S. The answer to the 1st question (taken from ) is: how long does a copyright last, and was it ever copyrighted?
0 kommentar(er)
