[rescue] Re: Making SS20 drive brackets.. no little circle c

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Sat, May 04, 2002 at 01:27:35PM -0600, Leslie Connally wrote:
> I'm sitting here looking at a real sparc bracket.. Can we assume every part
> manufactured is oopyrighted or trademarked?  I dont _see_ any little circle
> c on this bracket. It does have a part number molded into it.

It could be patented, but I doubt it.  Aside from any logos stamped on the
unit, I'd be shocked if trademark would apply.  As a non-lawyer, it seems
to me that Sun hasn't been promoting their brackets as a brand or product
image, let alone protecting whatever image it might be.  Copyright would
apply to the original design files, but I don't think it would apply to
the bracket itself.

It seems to me that the safest way to go would be to record all the specs
of it that are essential (like drive screw placing, how the bracket fits
into the machine, etc), so that someone could design a duplicate bracket 
looking only at a textual description and/or a bracketless SS20.  Then
you wouldn't be copying the bracket, but rather designing a compatible 
one, which is a generally protected activity, assuming no relevent patents.

Anyway, I think this is an activity that is probably about as safe as making
your own T-Cards.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd