🚀 go-pugleaf

[mod- Hmm... There seems to be some contradiction here....
	Anybody wish to discuss so we can formualate something as 
	this is a question that comes up all the time]

Two additions to the FAQ:

> (v) Can I build a patented device for my own use and enjoyment?
> People build infringing items in their sheds all the time, I suppose.  But
> in most countries including the US, this is no defense to infringement.  

No. There is a strong precedent that ``experimental use does not
infringe a patent.'' There is case law at least from 1935, 1937, 1943,
1958, 1962, and 1978 supporting this; in the 1978 case, the company
defending itself for experimental use was IBM! Two of the cases defined
``experimental use'': viz., ``experiments for sole purpose of gratifying
philosophical taste or curiosity or for instruction and amusement.''
Such use never infringes a patent.

> In the United States, the founders of the Constitution
> recognized the value of patents in Section 8 of the US Constitution:

An alternate, and historically better documented, viewpoint is that the
founders did everything they could to _reduce_ the power of monopolies.
See prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/lpf/laf-fallacies.texi.Z for some interesting
discussion of this issue.

---Dan