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[ken_nj]

I have an electronic device that I built for myself for my fish tank. It is known as an ATO or Auto Top Off unit (Name not coined by me). As water evaporates it refills the fish tank from a water supply. It has alarms and indicators to show what the current condition is. I designed it myself without looking at any other type of devices out there on the market. There are commercial devices that do the same thing, but I have not even checked them as I wanted to build my own. I do have video's on YouTube that show my device functioning. People have commented on the videos expressing interest on how they can build one of my unit's. I wish to make semi-kits and sell them for myself and would only be able to make a few bucks from this. People would have to obtain other parts and build it on their own. It is a hobby type thing that eventually I will sometime stop selling it as a kit and just supply plans in the public domain for people to build this themselves.

• Is this something I should copyright?
• Would copyrighting this be any benefit to me?
• I do not want to use my name on the plans. I have no company name to use. Is that a problem?
• Could I be liable for any reason if the person builds it wrong?

[MYK]

This isn't really the sort of thing that copyright protects, but some aspects of your product might by copyrightable or mask-rightable (the instructions and the circuit board, respectively, for example).

Regarding the liability issue, yes, of course you could end up being held liable.  Say, for example, that your device is poorly designed, and the design flaw causes an electrical fire, resulting in burning down someone's house, killing his children, wife, and fish.  Welcome to Bankruptcy, Population: You.

This sort of thing is why one forms an LLC and operates as a business.  Your liability would be limited to the assets of the LLC.

Not wanting your name to be associated with the plans is a little fishy, frankly.  You don't escape liability that way, and I think it would look bad if you did end up in court.

Selling your product as a kit might or might not help you with liability risk.  I would suggest finding an attorney in your state and discussing the problem.

[ken_nj]

This is good that I asked about this before I proceeded with this idea then, thank you.

So this device I built started out as a fun-hobby thing for me to do as a self challenge to build something for around $20 compared to buying a commercial product for $75-$100. Of course I spent alot of time designing and building the device. I am no electrical engineer, just a hobbyist. My device has been operating for 2 years flawlessly. That is not to say there are possible design flaws with it. Without getting too technical, devices that supply the 12vdc to my design would be UL approved. And devices that my device would operate would also be UL approved. The supply and operating devices operate on 120vac while my device operates on 12vdc.

My intention here was to maybe make a few bucks, help others in the hobby that like to do this Do It Yourself (DIY) type of thing, and have fun doing it. That's it. I guess all of the previous verbiage is a mute point since my device is not tested by any organization for safety or comes with no guarantees about safety. I guess a disclaimer like you have at the bottom of your signature area would not apply if the DIY'r did something wrong on his own? (As an example, it is known that a hot cup of coffee is very hot, you need to be careful with it. If you drive your car with it between your legs and the top comes off and the coffee spills on your person, you did something stupid and the place that sold you the coffee did nothing wrong).

I guess the thing is I wanted to keep this as a simple hobbyist type of thing. Long term I want nothing to do with it, hence did not want get a lawyer involved and deal with an LLC. I figure in the beginning people would be excited about it then things would die down. Long term if the instructions\plans were in the public domain, people could possibly be very happy constructing something on their own, have the satisfaction of building it, and be happy with what they built and not come to me with questions on design or building it. That would be why I would not want my name associated with it. I do not plan on being married to this in the public domain if it ever got there.

Maybe there is no such animal as 'simple hobbyist thing' when it comes to people building an electrical device that will be near or control water. It can be a dangerous thing. Like this forum, I am only know as Ken_NJ. I would post my instructions\plans on a forum about fish tanks and be only know as ken_nj with no means of people know where I live, or how to contact me. I can get legal help through my employee benefits so I'll see if there is someone I can talk to, hopefully no fees.

Any further thoughts on what I mentioned above? Or thoughts from others?
I really appreciate any comments or suggestions!!