De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by Retric on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @05:16AM (#17186240)

You can't get a copyright on simple geometric shapes, they would need something bizarre looking to not have been created in the past. Further, stones are both tiny and shiny so people can't really tell what they look like.

A more realistic option is use nanoscale etching to get unique colors. Much like those blue butterfly wings that don't use pigment.

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Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by gorbachev on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @08:57AM (#17187286)

They could patent the process of cutting that shape though, if it's sufficiently complicated.

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Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by jerf on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @11:02AM (#17188213)

But again, that will only hold for some bizarre new shape. Anything using existing techniques and any cuts you can't plausibly claim copyright on will still be fine, and that's going to be almost everything.

If de Beers wants to patent and copyright some bizarre foamy cut of a diamond that does some exotic thing, that's fine, but it's not going to be "a diamond ring" as most people think of them.

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Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by chc on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @12:19PM (#17188994)

I don't know, lots of things that shouldn't be patentable seem to somehow become patentable when you say the magic words "using a computer." Maybe de Beers' legal team will come up with some gemstone equivalent.

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Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by d0lph on Thursday May 31, 2018 @10:46AM (#17196679)

But, on the other hand just because you can get a patent, doesn't mean it can't be challenged.

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Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by Retric on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @09:51AM (#17187610)

Patents last for 20 years and can be invalidated or worked around. Copyright is ~forever.

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Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by riffic on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @12:17PM (#17188977)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_term

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Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by Retric on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @01:47PM (#17189850)

Even that graph is on the low side for corporate projects. Just include a few teenagers in the process and push the expected lifetime up another 40 years.

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Re:De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds by gowld on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @12:55PM (#17189343)

Beautiful illustration of how "for now" becomes "forever" as "now" moves forward.

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