[TowerTalk] Fractal Antennas, Chip Cohen (N1IR) on Nova

[David Gilbert]

A patent is no assurance of anything, least of all the technical 
validity of the idea, except for possibly the opportunity to argue the 
merits of it in front of a judge and/or jury comprised of people even 
more technically ignorant than the folks at the patent office who 
granted it.  For the most part, the only requirement for a patent is 
that the idea be unique, not that it have any relationship to the laws 
of science, and even that criteria fails absurdly often in actual practice.

73,
Dave   AB7E


On 12/16/2010 12:36 AM, Jim Thomson wrote:
> Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:44:55 -0800
> From: jimlux<jimlux at earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fractal Antennas, Chip Cohen (N1IR) on Nova
> Last Night
>
>
>
> I think the primary value of fractal antennas (over other frequency
> independent or broad/multi-band designs of one sort or another) is as a
> unique marketing tool for product differentiation.  Along the lines of
> "now, with patent pending framostat enabled chrome muffler bearings".
>
> it also allows some amount of funding lock-in.  If you hold the patents,
> it makes it harder for someone else to experiment with it and prove you
> wrong.  A would-be debunker gets a letter implying a legal battle might
> ensue, and you figure you got other more productive fish to fry, whether
> or not the legal claims have merit (that is, reproduction of a patented
> thing for experimentation is permitted under limited circumstances, but
> you'd hate to spend thousands of dollars proving it)
>
> ##  Have u ever looked up some of these 'patents' ?   Remember the
> fellow on the east coast who build's those megabuck ant tuners ?
> Did you look up his 'patent'?     The short of it is....'the ability  to switch the
> capacitor  from one end of the coil.....to the opposite end of the coil'.
> His tuner is nothing more than a heavy duty L network..consisting of one
> variable coil, and one  variable cap..and a simple ceramic switch.  The switch of
> course, just  moves the hot end of the cap from one end of the coil to the other end.
> IE:  step down the Z..or  step up the Z.    Just like you see in any ancient ARRL book...
> except this fellow actually obtained a US patent to switch the cap !    Look up Clarence
> Moore's  patent on his  cubical quad some time.  It's  2 x quad loops with a transposed open
> wire line between em..sorta like a ZL / HB9CV  array.  I dunno who ripped off who..
> 1st.   Some how it morphed  from that...to a single fed loop..with a parasitic  REF loop behind it.
>
> later... Jim   VE7RF
>
>
>
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