Re: [ara-module-developers] Digest for ara-module-developers@googlegroups.com - 1 update in 1 topic

[Bruce Boyes]

This assumes it is not open source with some reasonable license. I have no idea, just throwing that in.

Merely complying with a public specification usually does not incur liability, unless the owner of the spec requires some license, and you want to claim compliance and use a trademark (for example "I2C" or "micro SD" or "WiFi" or "USB"). So you can create a USB-compliant product no problem, but if you want to use the trademark name and image of "USB" then you would have to pay a license and prove that you really are compliant in order to claim that. Sometimes the hardware you must by includes the license fee. Now I can't think of the example where I know that is the case, but I recall the fee was about $1 per part and everyone who bought the compliant connector (IIRC) was automatically licensed.

Another example: if you want to provide Ethernet MAC address or USB product and vendor IDs you pay a reasonable fee and buy a block of addresses or IDs as the case may be. Those are two examples which are not bad and any small company can afford to be legitimate (my company owns a block of MAC addresses).

So it might not be so bad... the devil is always in the details, so check first, before you invest time and effort in a design.

I'm not a lawyer, I'm an engineer, but have had to deal with these issues in products.

Hope that is some help...