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Noctua releases official 3D CAD models for its cooling fans

noctua.at

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Re: Noctua releases official 3D CAD models for its cooling fans

#41

Post by teaearlgraycold »

jijijijij wrote: post #34
userbinator wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless they still have an unexpired patent on the design, it's completely legal to clone. Physical objects simply do not have the same type of copyright protection, and there is considerable precedent in making compatible components --- the most notable example being the automotive aftermarket.

I believe the restriction on personal replication of patented designs is a US thing (only?). At least in Germany, you are legally allowed to make patented things for yourself or science to some capacity. The whole point of a patent is encouraging progress through disclosure of knowledge. The US restriction is quite mad, if you think about it. Freedom my ass.

Uh no you can definitely make a replica of a patented device at home in the US. You can not sell it. I don’t think you could distribute the files of a reverse engineered Noctua fan online either.

Re: Noctua releases official 3D CAD models for its cooling fans

#42

Post by [deleted] »

jijijijij wrote: post #34
userbinator wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless they still have an unexpired patent on the design, it's completely legal to clone. Physical objects simply do not have the same type of copyright protection, and there is considerable precedent in making compatible components --- the most notable example being the automotive aftermarket.

I believe the restriction on personal replication of patented designs is a US thing (only?). At least in Germany, you are legally allowed to make patented things for yourself or science to some capacity. The whole point of a patent is encouraging progress through disclosure of knowledge. The US restriction is quite mad, if you think about it. Freedom my ass.

[deleted]

Re: Noctua releases official 3D CAD models for its cooling fans

#43

Post by teaearlgraycold »

0-_-0 wrote: post #38
bbor wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of a patent is encouraging progress through disclosure of knowledge. Is it, though? It seems like the purpose of a patent is pretty direct: make money for people(/corporations...) who invent things. I guess you could argue that inventors would hide their designs without patents, but that's not how any industry I'm familiar with works; if they thought that obscurity was an option, they'd stick with it…

Obscurity makes no sense on a world with patents.

Unless you don’t think anyone will ever figure out how you do something.

Re: Noctua releases official 3D CAD models for its cooling fans

#45

Post by alex43578 »

HPsquared wrote: post #20
fyrn_ wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the tolerances to the fan housing (which reduces turbulence and thus noise), and the the material stiffness needed for that small tolerance, are the alleged reason there are few copycats. Supposedly getting plastic that rigid is hard. I've tried to find hard numbers and validate that claim, but I wasn't able to. Would probably have to measure an actual noctua fan blade to know. On the other hand, metal prin…

Do they add glass fibers, I wonder. That's a way to make plastic stiffer but it's a bit harder to make.

Hopefully not - I’d hate the idea of my fan shedding glass fibers right into the exhaust of my PC and onwards into my office.

Re: Noctua releases official 3D CAD models for its cooling fans

#47

Post by numpad0 »

egeozcan wrote: post #3

> To protect our intellectual property, certain features – such as fan impeller geometries – have been slightly modified while remaining visually very close to the actual product. Noob question: If someone wants to copy their design with no respect to their intellectual property, can't they just 3D scan?

I think they are trying to stop random small shops from making cosmetic copies that compete with their products.

Crude copies with convincing appearance would tarnish their brand. Visibly crude copies stop performance data of such copies from being mistaken as representative of actual products.

Re: Noctua releases official 3D CAD models for its cooling fans

#48

Post by bfivyvysj »

bbor wrote: post #35
jijijijij wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the restriction on personal replication of patented designs is a US thing (only?). At least in Germany, you are legally allowed to make patented things for yourself or science to some capacity. The whole point of a patent is encouraging progress through disclosure of knowledge. The US restriction is quite mad, if you think about it. Freedom my ass.

The whole point of a patent is encouraging progress through disclosure of knowledge. Is it, though? It seems like the purpose of a patent is pretty direct: make money for people(/corporations...) who invent things. I guess you could argue that inventors would hide their designs without patents, but that's not how any industry I'm familiar with works; if they thought that obscurity was an option, they'd stick with it…

Yes, that is the purpose. It incentives R&D by providing a sanctioned monopoly on the result. The trade in return is that the public domain gets access to the trade secret after enough time has passed to provide the inventor with reward for their investment risk.

The problem is the time has been repeatedly extended across the world to the point that society gets very little from this arrangement.

At this point we're better off removing the concept of IP entirely.

Re: Noctua releases official 3D CAD models for its cooling fans

#49

Post by PunchyHamster »

bbor wrote: post #35
jijijijij wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the restriction on personal replication of patented designs is a US thing (only?). At least in Germany, you are legally allowed to make patented things for yourself or science to some capacity. The whole point of a patent is encouraging progress through disclosure of knowledge. The US restriction is quite mad, if you think about it. Freedom my ass.

The whole point of a patent is encouraging progress through disclosure of knowledge. Is it, though? It seems like the purpose of a patent is pretty direct: make money for people(/corporations...) who invent things. I guess you could argue that inventors would hide their designs without patents, but that's not how any industry I'm familiar with works; if they thought that obscurity was an option, they'd stick with it…

The original idea was "we protect the invention so the companies have guarantee that their investment in the innovation pays off".

The assumption was the invention was something rare and hard, not something you could re-recrate from scratch in a week or evening (in case of software invention) or that patent is only filled to cast a wide net to block the competition

Re: Noctua releases official 3D CAD models for its cooling fans

#50

Post by jijijijij »

bbor wrote: post #35
jijijijij wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the restriction on personal replication of patented designs is a US thing (only?). At least in Germany, you are legally allowed to make patented things for yourself or science to some capacity. The whole point of a patent is encouraging progress through disclosure of knowledge. The US restriction is quite mad, if you think about it. Freedom my ass.

The whole point of a patent is encouraging progress through disclosure of knowledge. Is it, though? It seems like the purpose of a patent is pretty direct: make money for people(/corporations...) who invent things. I guess you could argue that inventors would hide their designs without patents, but that's not how any industry I'm familiar with works; if they thought that obscurity was an option, they'd stick with it…

> It offers a bargain between society and inventor:for a limited period of exclusivity, the inventor agrees to make the invention public rather than to keep it secret.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent

In today's world patents are mostly dysfunctional, or straight malignant. They tend to slow, discourage progress and selectively aid large corporation who can afford the legal warfare. They have become also less informative, more vague, so really the bargain with the collective is off now.

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