Author Topic: Rutan granted patent for SpaceShipOne (Read 5242 times)

Rusty_Barton · « **on:** 04/08/2007 01:53 am »

On March 27, 2007, Burt Rutan and Mojave Aerospace Ventures were granted a patent for SpaceShipOne.

Here are a few pages of the patent:

sfxtd · « **Reply #1 on:** 04/08/2007 10:10 am »

It is interesting that the abstract says "altitude" instead of "attitude." This is not the first time I have seen that error in reference to this vehicle. I would have thought that it would have been caught in the review of a patent application.

Rusty_Barton · « **Reply #2 on:** 04/08/2007 02:02 pm »

Here are the specifications pages of the patent:

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #3 on:** 04/08/2007 02:34 pm »

Nice work Rusty.

astrobrian · « **Reply #4 on:** 04/09/2007 12:27 am »

Does anyone know if the roughly 3 years since complete, is the normal time for a patent like this to go through?

khallow · « **Reply #5 on:** 04/09/2007 01:53 am »

It's possible that Scaled Composites somehow slowed things down to milk a little more duration from the patent? Seems a bit long to me, but I have no experience in this area.

realtime · « **Reply #6 on:** 04/09/2007 04:23 am »

Quote

astrobrian - 8/4/2007 8:27 PM

Does anyone know if the roughly 3 years since complete, is the normal time for a patent like this to go through?

I don't know about aerospace patents but software patents take about that long.

mr.columbus · « **Reply #7 on:** 04/09/2007 08:17 am »

Quote

khallow - 8/4/2007 9:53 PM

It's possible that Scaled Composites somehow slowed things down to milk a little more duration from the patent? Seems a bit long to me, but I have no experience in this area.

For all patents filed in the US after 1995 the patent duration is 20 years from the date of the filing, not the date of the issue of the patent. Slowing the patent process down does not change the term of the patent.

kevin-rf · « **Reply #8 on:** 04/09/2007 02:18 pm »

Quote

realtime - 8/4/2007 11:23 PM

Quote
astrobrian - 8/4/2007 8:27 PM

Does anyone know if the roughly 3 years since complete, is the normal time for a patent like this to go through?
I don't know about aerospace patents but software patents take about that long.

The last patent I was involved with took the company close to two years. But that was for the R&D market and not aerospace.

Far Reach · « **Reply #9 on:** 04/09/2007 09:17 pm »

When is the first flight supposed to be taking place?

astrobrian · « **Reply #10 on:** 04/09/2007 09:29 pm »

Nothing yet announced for SpaceShipTwo be it a test flight or otherwise. Scaled/Burt likes to keep things quiet until right before they happen. Not sure if that will change with Richard Branson's pull or not.