Given the interest in SpaceX there must be tens of thousands of people many with technical experience who might have good ideas for improvements or money saving. If such ideas were vetted by someone with appropriate experience some of the better ideas could be passed on to be reviewed by SpaceX staff. Would this sort of arrangement work? Seems like a massive resource is going to waste here.
No. They know what they are doing. Far more than us armchair engineers.
No. No, no, no, no, and no. Also no. If you or anyone else wants to advise SpaceX, do so as an employee. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Quote from: Slarty1080 on 05/08/2018 10:42 pmGiven the interest in SpaceX there must be tens of thousands of people many with technical experience who might have good ideas for improvements or money saving. If such ideas were vetted by someone with appropriate experience some of the better ideas could be passed on to be reviewed by SpaceX staff. Would this sort of arrangement work? Seems like a massive resource is going to waste here.No. They know what they are doing. Far more than us armchair engineers.
In addition to Dunning-Kruger, if someone did send them a novel and original idea to improve things, taking it and running with it might be considered an opening for "intellectual property" lawsuits.It's one thing to take a published public tweet suggestion for an improvement to your Tesla and implement that. It could potentially be considered something something completely different to take a potentially patentable idea submitted without any authentication and implement it, and I don't think anyone wants to involve the legal department unnecessarily.
Quote from: ClayJar on 05/09/2018 12:17 amIn addition to Dunning-Kruger, if someone did send them a novel and original idea to improve things, taking it and running with it might be considered an opening for "intellectual property" lawsuits.It's one thing to take a published public tweet suggestion for an improvement to your Tesla and implement that. It could potentially be considered something something completely different to take a potentially patentable idea submitted without any authentication and implement it, and I don't think anyone wants to involve the legal department unnecessarily.That's not how patents work.If you disclosed it to them, then they can't PATENT it, but they can sure use it (unless it is already patented or filed for).If you disclosed it in a public forum, then probably nobody else can patent it either.-----ABCD: Always Be Counting Down
Quote from: meekGee on 05/12/2018 03:13 pmQuote from: ClayJar on 05/09/2018 12:17 amIn addition to Dunning-Kruger, if someone did send them a novel and original idea to improve things, taking it and running with it might be considered an opening for "intellectual property" lawsuits.It's one thing to take a published public tweet suggestion for an improvement to your Tesla and implement that. It could potentially be considered something something completely different to take a potentially patentable idea submitted without any authentication and implement it, and I don't think anyone wants to involve the legal department unnecessarily.That's not how patents work.If you disclosed it to them, then they can't PATENT it, but they can sure use it (unless it is already patented or filed for).If you disclosed it in a public forum, then probably nobody else can patent it either.-----ABCD: Always Be Counting DownMy recollection is that after the changes to the US patent system some years ago the 1 year grace period between public disclosure and filing was still in existence. It was modified so that if ClayJar disclosed his invention here he would have 1 year to file on it but nobody else would be able to file on it because his post would be prior art for them.
That's not how patents work.If you disclosed it to them, then they can't PATENT it, but they can sure use it (unless it is already patented or filed for).If you disclosed it in a public forum, then probably nobody else can patent it either.