Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Pat Pending]

I have devised a keyboard entry system which seems far superior to Dvorak etc. Is this patentable/copyrightable in any way as it would just involve installing a piece of software these days ? There is no new physical product and the software to do it is simple and trivial. The value lies in the idea. On searching I notice that the Dvorak layout was originally patented but it seems to be free to use.

Any advice would be welcomed.

[Dazed-n-confused]

I have devised a keyboard entry system which seems far superior to Dvorak etc. Is this patentable/copyrightable in any way as it would just involve installing a piece of software these days ? There is no new physical product and the software to do it is simple and trivial. The value lies in the idea. On searching I notice that the Dvorak layout was originally patented but it seems to be free to use.

BUMPing in case this one got lost, and I'll add my 2 cents.

A new keyboard layout (and method based on the layout) can be patentable if it is both new (not previously known) and not obvious (not merely an obvious change from all the other known layouts).  So yes, it is potentially patentable.

But ask yourself whether you really want to shell out $$$$ to try to patent this, even if new and not-obvious?  ($$$$ means you'd likely end up in 4-figure land by the time you got a granted US patent.).  Do you think you'd ever recoup your investment, without shelling out an awful lot more to promote/market it?

Wonder if Dr. Dvorak recouped his substantial investment?  And that was during a time when qwerty wasn't yet another 75 years etched in stone from today...