SPL Transpressor plagiarism

[Timo]

Here's a post I wrote in the Sound On Sound forums in early 2008:

<a href="/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=598359&Main=597442" target="_blank">http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showf ... =597442</a>

A Transpressor™.

Envelope follower (transient designer) and compressor, in one unit. Envelope follower can be switchable post/pre compressor.

If a good balance was struck for each of the two aspects, for both technical and creative uses it would be a great boon to have them available in one unit and working together, for countless reasons. A dynamics powerhouse.

Now see this from SPL:

http://www.spl.info/

Identical feature set (envelope follower switchable post/pre compressor all in one unit), heck even the same name.

Any lawyers amongst us?

[cello]

However - and it may be bad news... my understanding from my experience working in copyright matters, is that you can only copyright/patent HOW something is done - you can't copyright a concept/idea.

Think of cars for example, - Renault, Mercedez, etc - the idea of the product is common - personal transport using wheels and an engine. But all manufacturers have patents/copyright protection on how they respectively do it.

If you had really trademarked the name you mention then you would have had something against them. You can't just put 'tm' beside something and it's protected. EVery country has some kind of Intellectual Property agency where you pay to have it registered which only comes if no-one challenges the trademark. Usually takes 3 or 4 months.

I'm afraid you may just have to look at the Transpresser and know it was a great idea!

[Bachus]

However - and it may be bad news... my understanding from my experience working in copyright matters, is that you can only copyright/patent HOW something is done - you can't copyright a concept/idea.

But then i get that feeling that people are trying to get patents on ideas all the time even if they can't create those products with current days technollogies...