Patent rights on Star Trek Tech?

[Crewman47]

- Sell holodeck technology, first as a public forum, then personal holosuites, similar to personal computers (specially designed for home or personal use).

I'm quoting from a part of the post Indolover posted on the "If you had a starship" thread and it's something I've wondered that if you were to acquire or invent any technology exactly as it is from Star Trek, like the Holodeck, Tricorder, Phasers etc, then would you really have any right to patent them and sell them or does Paramount or Mike Okuda/Rick Sternbach (the designers for most of the Technology seen in Star Trek) hold any rights on them and could they demand any part of the profits, just like if you came up with your own fan designed Star Trek merchandise and Paramount would likely want a cut?

Just a question I thought off out of curiosity, in case something like this ever were to happen.

 

[AstroSmurf]

Paramount and CBS can copyright the look or name of something, like a hypospray or photon torpedo. But since this is an imaginary world, the actual technology found inside the iten can not be copy-righted. So for example, someone might invent a phased particle weapon but they can not call it a "phaser" or build a housing for it that looks like a Star Trek phaser.

(And before it is brought up, I know that Xerox or Cannon or some company has invented a new color toner they call "Phaser" but that is so far removed from the original name and purpose that it isn't technically an infringement.)

 

[Sector 7]

A patent application must be accompanied by sketches or diagrams of the item and its workings. Since Paramount, Okuda or anyone else cannot submit a working blueprint, they cannot claim first right of invention... should anyone actually invent them.

 

[zar]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Defictionalization

 

[Timo]

someone might invent a phased particle weapon but they can not call it a "phaser" or build a housing for it that looks like a Star Trek phaser

...In practice, if somebody did invent a phaser for real, they'd probably face no obstacles with naming it "phaser" and putting it in TOS style gunmetal. What lawyer or indeed nation would dare take issue?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nerd unRage]

Well, I would think there would be no problem since we have flip phones that are essentially "Communicators". Granted, they've never been referred to as this but we all know that the idea for these probably orginated with Star Trek. I've never heard of anyone associated with the production of the show grumbling about not getting a cut of the action.

I would imagine this would translate to anything else that could be invented based on a concept in Star Trek.

 

[Mr Silver]

Well, I would think there would be no problem since we have flip phones that are essentially "Communicators". Granted, they've never been referred to as this but we all know that the idea for these probably orginated with Star Trek. I've never heard of anyone associated with the production of the show grumbling about not getting a cut of the action.

I would imagine this would translate to anything else that could be invented based on a concept in Star Trek.

Well the guy who came up with the original mobile/cellular phone design, has commented numerous times how he was heavily inspired by TOS Communicators

Obviously if someone decided to create a Communicator for real, based on the actual design and function, then they may have to pay royalties to the patent holder, for example a lot of Star Trek merchandise that features the likeness of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, etc is done under an agreement that they take a cut

 

[Gary7]

Nokia produced a working Star Trek communicator prototype cell phone, an internal evaluation of about 14 built at Nokia in 2008 or 2009. It's a fully-functional GSM cellphone (really, it's just a heavily-modified Nokia N76). Read about it HERE.

It's sort of a "streamlined" version of the original. It even has a metal grid covered lid that, when flipped open, would make the communicator chirp sound. It never went to production, unfortunately. An employee who worked on the project left Nokia and had one of these in his possession. He sold it on eBay for a hefty profit. It was branded "Star Trek", so I imagine they were going to pay some royalties to Paramount for this. Maybe that was part of why they pulled it? It wasn't a great design, unfortunately. It went about 60% of the way towards the look and functionality of the original communicator... and then didn't provide any innovative functionality for the rest of it.

 

[Gary7]

Here's a comparison (other photos can be seen on the article linked above):

 

[Leathco]

Many phones are combination PADDS and comm units. Look at the Droid series, or the iPhone. Hell, there's mods out there that give these devices LCARS interfaces (I had something like this on my old iPhone before I switched to BlackBerry)

In some areas, modern technology has surpassed Trek tech. Such as monitors, TOS featured very basic monochrome style monitors or "backlit pictures" to show a more advanced monitor, even though the image never changed. TNG onward used LCARS, which looks good, but is more or less backlit colored plastic. Enterprise used more modern LCD tech for monitors, which looked great and more modern (ironic for a prequel series). Now, although LCD is still the most common, LED monitors are becoming more prevalent due to using less power and not requiring backlighting that the LCD monitors need.