[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

So basically, IFI couldn't design a system based off of it and sell it to teams, only AndyMark could, presumably if they had permission from their Delphi, right?

From a legalistic point of view, AndyMark is even less likely than IFI to offer a product based on Andy's patent. Why, you ask?

Andy is the inventor, but Delphi owns the patent. Andy works for Delphi. As a Delphi employee, Andy has to stay away from conflicts of interest; this means he can't be involved in commercial deals with suppliers, customers, or competitors of Delphi. Clearly Delphi would have to view any firm that markets a product based on their patented idea as a (potential) competitor.

So, to sell a product based on Andy's invention, (1) AndyMark would have to get permission from Delphi to used the patented idea, and (2) Andy himself would need an exception to the restriction on conflicts of interest. On the other hand, IFI has no employees who also work for Delphi, so they would only need to get permission to use the patented idea.

All that aside, we're talking about Delphi here -- the company that has been an extremely strong supporter of FIRST for as long as any of us can remember. I personally don't think Delphi would have a problem with FIRST teams using Andy's invention. But they might have a issue with anyone except Delphi making money off it.

(disclaimer: I certainly cannot speak for Delphi.)

<edit> Re: the topic line of this thread. Of course I'm inspired by the Technokats. Isn't everyone? </edit>