Do inventors pay royalties for fictionally-inspired technology?
right down to the big blue warp core and glowing nacelles Not sure about the patent, but in theory, you could be nailed for copyright infringement on the expression of the technology and the original IP. In other words, if you magically created a starship that looked exactly like the Enterprise, and you called it the Enterprise, and you had guys on it dressed in Starfleet uniforms, and you charged people money for Star Trek(tm) brand pleasure cruises around the solar system, the guys at Paramount would probably like to have a word with you.
The rule of thumb for patenting an invention is that the applicant must be the first to reduce the claimed invention to practice. reduction to practice need not involve a working model, however, but can rely on detailed plans sufficient that someone “skilled in the art” could build a working model. In addition, the novelty of the invention must be such that it would not normally occur to a person skilled in the art associated with that invention. In the example of the warp drive, if it is not possible for a person skilled in the art of propulsion systems to create a functioning warp drive from what has been revealed in the Star Trek stuff so far, then what has been revealed does not serve as prior art. That being said, however, the overworked Patent Office seems to have adopted the practice of granting many “problematic” applications and letting the courts settle the issue of validity. This shifts the workload to the applicant(s) and the contester(s), especially in the business of esta
