IP Rescue

From: http://everywheretech.org/ip-rescue-program/

IP RESCUE PROGRAM

In a world where patents and copyrights have become numerous, vague and obscure, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between public domain, fair use, open source and proprietary components, all of which can coexist in a single artifact. As Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine point out, this legal tangle hinders innovation and makes it extremely hard for developers to improve or create something new without violating some “obscure patent.” In addition to this, there is a wide range of projects out in the public that have not been clearly licensed but are unpatentable, or that are legally in the public domain but for which the actual knowledge has been lost.

Everywhere Tech’s IP Rescue Program seeks to retrieve lost IP by:

• Requesting the assistance of IP attorneys to prepare IP briefs for specific pieces of hardware so it becomes clearer which parts are open for further development.
• Contacting the creators of unlicensed plans and working with those who are willing to properly open source those designs.
• Working with experts in several fields to recover lost public domain knowledge.