I came across a post on cnet linking to my ooooold blog post on silecing the mouse clicks. The interesting stuff is that the post also linked a patent that is covering the same issue albeit with a slightly different approach.
So was I breaching the patent? Would I be if I started producing silenced rodents? I don't know, there's just too many things to consider
1) Is the patent same as my hack? To me it looks like there are big-enough differences
2) I published it before the patent was published, but after it was filed. How does it work in such cases?
3) Fortunately, I'm not US citizen (the patent was filed in the USA). However there are international treaties regarding IP, so who knows ...
Was the hack worth commecializing?
Quick googling revealed that Gregory Maroun (the guy behind the patent) registered the quietmouse.com domain about the same day he filed the patent application. He was selling the silenced mice for 40-50$ and right now his site states that he's preparing a second generation of the mice that should be out in Spring this year.
So it seems one can do a business around this :-)
Good luck Greg and don't sue me :-)
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